[? onomatopœic, suggested by flaw, hurry etc.; cf. also FLURR v.]
1. A sudden agitation of the air, a gust or squall.
1698. J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 128, marg. Flurries from the Hills carry Men and Oxen down the Precipice.
1726–7. Swift, Gulliver, I. i. 22. The Boat was over-set by a sudden Flurry from the North.
1831. Scott, Jrnl., 18 Nov. Wind favourable during night, dies away in the morning, and blows in flurries rather contrary.
1890. Pall Mall G., 3 Dec., 1/3. You may watch ‘catspaws’ and ‘flurries’ on their rapid way.
fig. 1820. J. Q. Adams, Mem., 2 June (1875), V. 137. His flurries of temper pass off as quickly as they rise.
b. Chiefly U.S. A sharp and sudden shower; a sudden rush (of birds).
1828. in Webster.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, II. xviii. 162. The wind blew coldly from the north-east, with occasional flurries of snow, which made them encamp early, on the sheltered banks of a brook.
1868. Lowell, First Snowfall, 13.
| I stood and watched by the window | |
| The noiseless work of the sky, | |
| And the sudden flurries of snow-birds, | |
| Like brown leaves whirling by. |
1892. Stevenson, Across the Plains, 223. Described the boys as very cold, spat upon by flurries of rain, and drearily surrounded, all of which they were.
2. A sudden commotion or excitement; perturbation, nervous agitation, flutter, hurry.
1710. Palmer, Proverbs, 82. A man is never more expos’d to Temptation than in the Flurry of his Passions.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), II. 485. If we exert our endeavours, not in a fright and a flurry, but with a calm, steady determination, we shall find ourselves strongly assisted therein by the visible signs and pledges ordained by Christ himself.
1836. W. Irving, Life & Lett. (1866), III. 94. I cannot tell you how happy I was to get back again to my own dear, bright little home, and leave behind me the hurry and worry and flurry of the city.
1882. Mrs. Raven’s Tempt., II. 190. ‘That’s sure to be the upshot of flurries and hurries and frights.’
transf. 1878. Browning, Poets Croisic, cxxxviii.
| Flurry of ruffles, flounce | |
| Of wig-ties and of coat-tails. |
b. The death-throes of a dying whale.
1823. J. F. Cooper, Pilot, xvii. He’s going into his flurry.
1882. Illustr. Sport. & Dram. News, 18 March, 7/3. Unless you should be struck by the tail of a frantic cetacean during the ‘flurry’ or slaughter.
3. Comb. as flurry-scurry.
1888. Pall Mall G., 28 May, 1/2. So utterly and hopelessly incomprehensible does your recent flurry-scurry appear to the enlightened foreigner.
