LURCH • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... the safety of the boats. Early on the second day of warning they had been hoisted to the topmost notch of the cranes, and secured as thoroughly as experience could suggest; but at every lee lurch we gave it seemed as if we must dip them under water, while the wind threatened to stave the weather ones in by its actual solid weight. It was now blowing a furious cyclone, the force of which has never been accurately gauged (even by the present ...

— The Cruise of the Cachalot - Round the World After Sperm Whales • Frank T. Bullen

... the sea was calm, it seemed to him that the ship gave a great dizzying lurch. But in a moment he contrived to answer coherently: "Engaged to Miss Garland! I never supposed—I ...

— Roderick Hudson • Henry James

... on deck, before the houseboat gave a sudden lurch to one side, and then began to ...

— The Bobbsey Twins on a Houseboat • Laura Lee Hope

... the way that a kind of heated physical ill-breeding seemed to fall on everybody in the carriage, and the way they began to lurch against each other and pull packages off the rack and from under the seat with disregard for each other's comfort, that they were approaching the end of the journey; and she began to think of Marion with terror and vindictiveness, and this abstinence from a career became ...

— The Judge • Rebecca West

... words were lost in the great buzzing noise which filled his head. Everything turned black before him—black filled with a thousand shooting colors; then the world gave a vicious lurch which toppled him over. He awoke, flat on the ground, with Marjorie leaning above him, crying and dabbing his ...

— Tom of the Raiders • Austin Bishop

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