Meaning
A final effort, performance, appearance, or celebration before retirement, defeat, or the end of an era; especially a veteran's farewell campaign or a final fling. Frequently carries a nostalgic, wry, or ironic tone. Often nostalgic or ironic, and especially at home in writing about politics, sport, and careers. Regional use: General English (American origin).
Origin
The expression was popularised by Edwin O'Connor's 1956 novel The Last Hurrah (Little, Brown), which follows Frank Skeffington, an ageing Irish-American machine politician through his final mayoral campaign in a city widely understood to be Boston; the character is commonly accepted to be based on James Michael Curley, although O'Connor always denied it. Within the novel, a character calls the election 'a last hurrah' for the old-style urban political machine. The title, however, drew on a phrase already current in English rather than coining one from nothing: Merriam-Webster defines the noun as 'a final often valedictory effort, production, or appearance' and dates its first known use to 1966, some years after the novel and its 1958 film adaptation had fixed the phrase in the public vocabulary. In short: pre-existing informal American phrase, catapulted into wide use by a best-selling 1956 novel.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a last hurrah
- final hurrah
- last hurrahs
- one's last hurrah
Usage Examples
- The veteran striker's last hurrah came in the cup final, where he headed in the winning goal.
- The open-air concert was planned as the orchestra's last hurrah before the hall closed for renovation.
- After forty years in parliament, she treated the autumn election as one last hurrah.