LURCH • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Lurch

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/lərtʃ/ Listen

noun

Lurch n.

An old game played with dice and counters; a variety of the game of tables.

A double score in cribbage for the winner when his adversary has been left in the lurch. "Lady - has cried her eyes out on losing a lurch."

To leave one in the lurch.

(a)

In the game of cribbage, to leave one's adversary so far behind that the game is won before he has scored thirty-one.

(b)

To leave one behind; hence, to abandon, or fail to stand by, a person in a difficulty. "But though thou'rt of a different church, I will not leave thee in the lurch."

Lurch n. A sudden roll of a ship to one side, as in heavy weather; hence, a swaying or staggering movement to one side, as that by a drunken man. Fig.: A sudden and capricious inclination of the mind.

verb

Lurch v. t.

To leave in the lurch; to cheat. (Obs.) "Never deceive or lurch the sincere communicant."

To steal; to rob. (Obs.) "And in the brunt of seventeen battles since He lurched all swords of the garland."

Lurch v. i. To swallow or eat greedily; to devour; hence, to swallow up. (Obs.) "Too far off from great cities, which may hinder business; too near them, which lurcheth all provisions, and maketh everything dear."

Lurch v. i. (past & past part. lurched; pres. part. lurching) To roll or sway suddenly to one side, as a ship or a drunken man; to move forward while lurching.

Lurch v. i.

To withdraw to one side, or to a private place; to lurk.

To dodge; to shift; to play tricks. "I... am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch."

See images of 'Lurch'

Etymology of 'Lurch'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Lurch" Quotes from Famous Books

... some exercise," panted Aunt Nancy, as she reclined for an instant in my lap, where a lurch of the ship had deposited her; "so I'm takin' a little walk." She was still walking when Jessica and I retreated ...

— Many Kingdoms • Elizabeth Jordan

... during their idle hours was determination to acquire skill and alertness there can be no doubt. Invariably the game began in a particular way. One of the pair striding round the post—apparently oblivious of its existence—would lurch against it as a man inspired with rum might treat a lamp-post intent on getting in his way. Leering at the post for a second, the bird would march round again to shoulder it roughly a second time. Then a queer look of simulated petulance ...

— My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield

... riches deceitfull riches, and they may truely be compared to deceitfull friends who speake faire, and promise much, but perform nothing, and so leave those in the lurch that most relyed on them: so is it with the wealth, honours, and pleasures of this world, which miserably delude men, and make them put great confidence in them, but when death threatens, and distresse lays hold upon them, they prove like the reeds of Egipt that peirce instead ...

— Anne Bradstreet and Her Time • Helen Campbell

... seem to matter, for all grew dull again. Dyke had kept on nodding forward, and was jerked up again, but only for him to begin nodding again. Soon after he made a lurch to the left, and Breezy ceased cantering, and gave himself a hitch. Then followed a lurch to the right, and the cob gave himself another hitch to keep his master upon his back, progressing afterwards at a steady ...

— Diamond Dyke - The Lone Farm on the Veldt - Story of South African Adventure • George Manville Fenn

... After lurch Delphine ran upstairs to see her husband for a few minutes, and then returned to me in her little sitting-room. He was tired, she said, and hoped to sleep until tea. She had not told him of my visit; he was so listless and apathetic that it worried him to talk, or to have people talk to him. ...

— The Lady of the Basement Flat • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

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