lurch

See also: Lurch

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(r)tʃ

Etymology 1

Noun

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.

Translations

sudden or unsteady movement

• Dutch: hobbelen (nl) n, slingeren (nl) n
• French: embardée (fr)
• German: Schlingern n (unsteady), Ruck (de) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: barcollio, sbilanciamento, imbardata (it) f
• Russian: рыво́к (ru) m (ryvók)
• Spanish: bandazo m

Verb

1. To make such a sudden, unsteady movement.

Translations

to make a sudden, unsteady movement

• Finnish: horjua (fi)
• French: faire une embardée (fr)
• German: taumeln (de), schlingern (de), torkeln (de), ruckeln (de)
• Italian: barcollare (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Maori: tūpou (mi)
• Russian: пошатываться (ru) (pošatyvatʹsja)
• Spanish: tambalearse (es)
• Turkish: sendelemek (tr)

See also

• leave someone in the lurch
• Template:Wikisource1911Enc Citation

Etymology 2

From Latin lurcāre.

Verb

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.

Etymology 3

From French lourche (“deceived, embarrassed; also the name of a game”). The French term is seemingly from dialectal German lurz (“left-handed, deceptive, wrong”), which is from Proto-Germanic *lurtaz (“left; left-handed; crooked; bent; warped; underhanded; deceitful; limping”). Cognate to English lirt.

Noun

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.

Verb

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.

Anagrams

• churl