What does 'hurlyburly' mean in the context of Macbeth?
Hurlyburly is an old-fashioned expression, though one still occasionally in use today, which refers to something loud, chaotic, or unruly going on. An alternative might be "hubbub" or "ruckus."
In Macbeth, the expression is used by the Second Witch in the play's opening scene:
When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.
The Witch is referring here to the chaos and bloodshed of the nearby battle, where the brave Macbeth is in the process of distinguishing himself in Duncan's service by leading a decisive rout of enemy forces.
The above lines come in response to a question from the First Witch as to when the Weird Sisters will meet again. The Second Witch says that this will happen when all the hurlyburly, or noise and chaos, of battle is over, and one side has won and the other lost. Once the battle is safely out...
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of the way, the Weird Sisters will be able to tell Macbeth of their prophecies, thus planting the demon seed of ambition in his mind.
The irony here, of course, is that the witches are about to create quite a bit of hurlyburly themselves. By encouraging Macbeth's ambitions, they will unleash chaos, disorder, and bloodshed upon the kingdom of Scotland. In other words, they need to wait for the hurlyburly of battle to subside before they can create their own very special brand of hurlyburly.