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lurch

[lurch]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

an act or instance of swaying abruptly.

a sudden tip or roll to one side, as of a ship or a staggering person.

an awkward, swaying or staggering motion or gait.

verb (used without object)

(of a ship) to roll or pitch suddenly.

to make a lurch; move with lurches; stagger: The wounded man lurched across the room.

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Lurch is one of our favorite verbs.

So is subtilize. Does it mean:

to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.

to run away hurriedly; flee.

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Origin:
1760–70; origin uncertain

Related forms

lurch·ing·ly, adverb

Synonyms
5. lunge, reel, totter.

Example Sentences

There is the lurch of the dogs as the sled slashes through snow.

We all lurch and lose our balance-a truly horrifying experience when it happens on a roof.

And the biker-friendly trail ensures that, eventually, help will always turn up and no biker will be left in the lurch.

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There is the lurch of the dogs as the sled slashes through snow.

We all lurch and lose our balance-a truly horrifying experience when it happens on a roof.

And the biker-friendly trail ensures that, eventually, help will always turn up and no biker will be left in the lurch.

Erickson said as the gator, pole firmly clamped, began to lurch in his direction.

Ground controllers saw the spacecraft lurch each time this happened.

It is found on the roads, where drunkards lurch their uninsured trucks along lanes that exist only in their imagination.

In the lurch which she made the shaft of the propeller was suddenly broken.

Mentor writes this column as holidays and tenure decisions lurch into view.

But as elsewhere, these rallies proved an interlude in the sharp downward lurch.

Some experts fear today's temperature rise could accelerate into a devastating climate lurch.

He parked with a lurch right across the street from us.

His eyes seemed to lurch around the room as if he were drunk.

Each downward lurch in the currency costs mortgage holders money and puts further strains on the banks.

Some bosses have fled town, leaving thousands of workers in the lurch.

Because their failure would represent another lurch down in the credit crunch.

The upward lurch largely reflected higher fuel and food prices.

He has had to keep out of sight and watch the government lurch left.

Roosevelt switched views yet again, leaving his delegation in the lurch.

She was hardly the first person in a wheelchair left in the lurch.

As panic sets in, bond yields lurch sickeningly upwards and fear spreads to shares and currencies.

As the car accelerates, the driver feels no lurch because no step occurs from one ratio to the next.

The huge tires do the work of the missing suspension, and there's no unnerving forward lurch when the rider hits the brakes.

Schaffer's midtown digs involved the subway, and every cruel lurch seemed dorsally directed.

Every now and then history seems to slip a gear and lurch forward in time-machine fashion.

The film crams too much into a few hours, though it's a fascinating lurch through history.

As panic sets in, bond yields lurch sickeningly upwards and fear spreads to shares and.

Two rocky minutes after lift-off there is a bang and a lurch when explosive bolts blow the spent solid rockets away.

She is, however, far too pretty to be left in the lurch by the white hero.

But this does not involve a lurch back to past ferocities.

Boyd digs his hands deep into the pockets of his nautical trousers and always stands as if set for a lurch of the ship.

Earlier this year, some economists thought the economy would actually lurch into reverse during the opening quarter.

The recorded-music business is not about to lurch into growth.

These days, the doctor sees a sickly world economy doomed to lurch from crisis to crisis.

Higher unemployment and rising bankruptcies could easily cause a vicious new downward lurch.

Unless that changes, the world will lurch from crisis to bailout and back again to crisis.

Bouts of prolonged stagflation now lurch toward a whopping work of reconstruction.

About two-thirds of the way along, the movie loses its footing and begins to lurch.

Laissez-faire capitalism caused the global financial crisis so let's embrace it more and lurch ever more to the right.

The plane made a stomach-churning lurch as the pilots banked left and began to circle.

It has to do with the fascinatingly human lurch and pop of his sampled rhythm tracks, but something bigger, too:.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a situation at the close of various games in which the loser scores nothing or is far behind the opponent.

Idiom

leave in the lurch, to leave in an uncomfortable or desperate situation; desert in time of trouble: Our best salesperson left us in the lurch at the peak of the busy season.

Origin:
1525–35; < Middle French lourche a game, noun use of lourche (adj.) discomfited < Germanic; compare Middle High German lurz left (hand), Old English belyrtan to deceive

verb (used with object)

Archaic. to do out of; defraud; cheat.

Obsolete. to acquire through underhanded means; steal; filch.

verb (used without object)

British Dialect. to lurk near a place; prowl.

noun

Archaic. the act of lurking or state of watchfulness.

Origin:
1375–1425; late Middle English lorchen, apparently variant of lurken to lurk

Link To lurch

Collins

World English Dictionary

lurch¹ (lɜːtʃ)

—vb
1.	to lean or pitch suddenly to one side
2.	to stagger or sway

—n
3.	the act or an instance of lurching

[C19: origin unknown]

'lurching¹

—*adj*

lurch² (lɜːtʃ)

—n
1.	leave someone in the lurch to desert someone in trouble
2.	cribbage the state of a losing player with less than 30 points at the end of a game (esp in the phrase in the lurch)

[C16: from French lourche a game similar to backgammon, apparently from lourche (adj) deceived, probably of Germanic origin]

lurch³ (lɜːtʃ)

—vb
	archaic, dialect or (intr) to prowl or steal about suspiciously

[C15: perhaps a variant of lurk]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

lurch

"sudden pitch to one side," 1819 (in Byron's "Don Juan"), from earlier lee-larch (1769), a nautical term for "sudden violent roll to leeward which a ship often takes in a high sea," perhaps from Fr. lacher "to let go," from L. laxus (see lax).

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lurch

"predicament," 1584, from M.E. lurch (v.) "to beat in a game of skill (often by a great many points)," c.1350, probably lit. "to make a complete victory in lorche," a game akin to backgammon, from O.Fr. lourche. The game name is perhaps related to M.E. lurken, lorken "to lie hidden, lie in ambush," or

it may be adopted into Fr. from M.H.G. lurz "left," also "wrong."

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

lurch

see leave in the lurch.

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Related Words

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scend tipsy

Idioms & Phrases

leave in the lurch

Matching Quote

"Not to be cowardly when it comes to our own actions! Not to leave them in the lurch!—The sting of conscience is indecent."

-Friedrich Nietzsche

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