hurrah's-nest

Updated: May 27, 2025

Men are always building better than they know, and perhaps this steadfast architecture is waiting for the race when their first flurry of newly-realised expansion shall have spent itself, and the present hurrah's-nest of telephone poles in the streets shall have been abolished.

Rudyard Kipling - Letters of Travel (1892-1913)

"It doesn't move at all, and instead I tried everything." "What's all this hurrah's-nest for'ard?" said Dan, pointing to a wild tangle of spare oars and dory-roding, all matted together by the hand of inexperience. "Oh, that," said Penn proudly, "is a Spanish windlass. Mr. Salters showed me how to make it; but even that doesn't move her."

Rudyard Kipling - Captains Courageous