Purler

noun, slang

noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A headlong fall or tumble. UK, colloquial

    "He came a purler on the icy path."

  2. 2
    Something extremely good. Australia, colloquial

    "The greatest game ever played is the one marketed with that tag by Australian Football Video: the 1989 round 6 match at Prince's Park between Hawthorn and Geelong, an awesome display of the skills of the game. It is doubtful whether two such great sides had ever graced a single season as the Hawks and the Cats did in 1989. The return match in September was a bit of a purler too, as I recall."

  3. 3
    A knockdown blow; a blow that causes a person to fall headlong. UK, colloquial

    "[The horse] falling with a mighty crash, gave him a purler on the opposite side, and was within an ace of striking him dead with his hoof in frantic struggles to recover."

Synonyms

All synonyms
king hitking hit

Example

More examples

"He came a purler on the icy path."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From purl (“a fall”).

Etymology 2

Uncertain.

Related phrases

come cropper

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.