Hurst Meaning
/hɝst/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA wood or grove.
nameA number of places in England:, A village in St Nicholas Hurst parish, Wokingham borough, Berkshire (OS grid ref SU7973).
Sentence Examples
Mr. Hurst looked at her with astonishment.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The early map marked a small ____, which was a wooded hill near the stream.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The small village was nestled in a peaceful ____ surrounded by ancient oak trees.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English hirste (“wood, grove; hillock; sandbank, sandbar”), from Old English hyrst (“hillock, eminence, height, wood, wooded eminence”), from Proto-West Germanic *hursti; akin to Dutch horst (“thicket; bird's nest”), German Horst (“thicket, nest”). Doublet of horst.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Where, to her neighboring Chase, the curteous Forrest show’d
So just conceived joy, that from each rising a hurst,
Where many a goodlie Oake had carefullie been nurst,"
— 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 2 p. 27:
"‘How you grandiloquise. A forest of uncertainty. But there – I slow down, as you say. I hesitate. I wonder if – no , let’s try further down. I cannot see the hurst for the elms.’"
— 1963, P[hilip] M[aitland] Hubbard, Flush as May, New York, N.Y.: London House & Maxwell, →LCCN, page 158:
"A blackthorn seedling can in this way expand into a hurst of 0,1-0, 5 ha in the space of 10 years, […]"
— 2000, Grazing Ecology and Forest History, →ISBN, page 150:
"A recognizable world seems to balloon up out of the names […]. Lovehurst down in the clay lands towards Staplehurst means "the hurst that was left to someone in a will": Legacy Wood. Its near neighbor, Tolehurst, originally called Tunlafahirst, means something like Heir's Farm Wood."
— 2010, Adam Nicolson, Sissinghurst: A Castle's Unfinished History, page 124:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The early map marked a small ____, which was a wooded hill near the stream.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The small village was nestled in a peaceful ____ surrounded by ancient oak trees.