The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hurdle \Hur"dle\, n. [OE. hurdel, hirdel, AS. hyrdel; akin to D. horde, OHG. hurt, G. h["u]rde a hurdle, fold, pen, Icel. hur? door, Goth. ha['u]rds, L. cratis wickerwork, hurdle, Gr. ?, Skr. k?t to spin, c?t to bind, connect. [root]16. Cf. Crate, Grate, n.]
A movable frame of wattled twigs, osiers, or withes and stakes, or sometimes of iron, used for inclosing land, for folding sheep and cattle, for gates, etc.; also, in fortification, used as revetments, and for other purposes.
In England, a sled or crate on which criminals were formerly drawn to the place of execution.
--Bacon.-
An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which men or horses leap in a race.
Hurdle race, a race in which artificial barriers in the form of hurdles, fences, etc., must be leaped.
WordNet
Usage examples of "hurdle race".
When the small trainer appeared at his elbow to remind him sharply that he should be inside changing into colours to ride in the Novice Hurdle race, he felt fit enough to go and do it, though he wished in a way that he hadn't said he would.
Delicate probes among colleagues revealed that nothing dramatic had happened in the hurdle race I had spent urging the taxi driver to rise above twenty.
I told him the rough position of the subsiding trench which had made a slaughterhouse of the hurdle race, so that he should know what to look for on the maps.
Gunnar Holth saddled two for the hurdle race, hurrying busily from one to the other and juggling both sets of owners with anxious dexterity.
Martin won the two-mile hurdle race by six lengths and Priam Jones complained that six lengths was too far.
The two-mile hurdle race, according to the card, was for horses that hadn't won a hurdle race before January ist.