lurch

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)tʃ

lurch (plural lurches)

1. A sudden or unsteady movement.

   the lurch of a ship, or of a drunkard

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     Yet I hoped by grouting at the earth below it to be able to dislodge the stone at the side; but while I was considering how best to begin, the candle flickered, the wick gave a sudden lurch to one side, and I was left in darkness.

lurch (third-person singular simple present lurches, present participle lurching, simple past and past participle lurched)

1. To make such a sudden, unsteady movement.

• leave someone in the lurch
• Lurch in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Latin lurcare.

lurch (third-person singular simple present lurches, present participle lurching, simple past and past participle lurched)

1. (obsolete) To swallow or eat greedily; to devour; hence, to swallow up.
   • Francis Bacon

     Too far off from great cities, which may hinder business; too near them, which lurcheth all provisions, and maketh everything dear.

French lourche (“deceived, embarrassed; also the name of a game”).

lurch (countable and uncountable, plural lurches)

1. An old game played with dice and counters; a variety of the game of tables.
2. A double score in cribbage for the winner when his/her adversary has been left in the lurch.
   • Walpole

     Lady Blandford has cried her eyes out on losing a lurch.

lurch (third-person singular simple present lurches, present participle lurching, simple past and past participle lurched)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To leave someone in the lurch; to cheat.
   • South

     Never deceive or lurch the sincere communicant.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To rob.
   • Shakespeare

     And in the brunt of seventeen battles since / He lurched all swords of the garland.

3. (obsolete, intransitive) To evade by stooping; to lurk.

• churl