lurch
pronunciation
How to pronounce lurch in British English:
UK [lɜ:tʃ]
How to pronounce lurch in American English:
US [lɜrtʃ]
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- Noun:
- an unsteady uneven gait
- a decisive defeat in a game (especially in cribbage)
- abrupt up-and-down motion (as caused by a ship or other conveyance)
- the act of moving forward suddenly
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- Verb:
- walk as if unable to control one's movements
- move abruptly
- move slowly and unsteadily
- loiter about, with no apparent aim
- defeat by a lurch
Word Origin
- lurch
- lurch: English has two words lurch, both with rather obscure histories. The verb, ‘stagger’ [19], appears to come from an earlier lee-lurch, which in turn may have been an alteration of an 18th-century nautical term lee-latch, denoting ‘drifting to leeward’. The latch element may have come from French lâcher ‘let go’. The lurch of leave someone in the lurch [16] originated as a term in backgammon, denoting a ‘defeat’, ‘low score’, or ‘position of disadvantage’. It was borrowed from French lourche, which probably goes back to Middle High German lurz ‘left’, hence ‘wrong’, ‘defeat’.
- lurch (n.1)
- "sudden pitch to one side," 1784, from earlier lee-larches (1765), a nautical term for "the sudden roll which a ship makes to lee-ward in a high sea, when a large wave strikes her, and bears her weather-side violently up, which depresses the other in proportion" ["Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences," London 1765]; perhaps from French lacher "to let go," from Latin laxus (see lax). When a Ship is brought by the Lee, it is commonly occaſsioned by a large Sea, and by the Neglect of the Helm's-man. When the Wind is two or three Points on the Quarter, the Ship taking a Lurch, brings the Wind on the other Side, and lays the Sails all dead to the Maſt; as the Yards are braced up, ſhe then having no Way, and the Helm being of no Service, I would therefore brace about the Head ſails ſharp the other Way .... [John Hamilton Moore, Practical Navigator, 8th ed., 1784]
- lurch (n.2)
- "predicament," 1580s, from Middle English lurch (v.) "to beat in a game of skill (often by a great many points)," mid-14c., probably literally "to make a complete victory in lorche," a game akin to backgammon, from Old French lourche. The game name is perhaps related to Middle English lurken, lorken "to lie hidden, lie in ambush," or it may be adopted into French from Middle High German lurz "left," also "wrong."
- lurch (v.)
- 1821, from lurch (n.1). Related: Lurched; lurching.
Example
- 1. Otherwise , we 'll lurch from crisis to crisis - and the crises will get bigger and bigger .
- 2. At worst it could cause growth to lurch upwards before tumbling again , with all the attendant uncertainty that entails .
- 3. But they have grown more sympathetic to industry concerns that investors would shun floating-nav funds , leaving borrowers in the lurch .
- 4. But the upward lurch in russia 's taxes seems particularly rough on the country 's brewers , 80 % of which are wholly or partly foreign-owned .
- 5. Alexei kudrin , a former finance minister who has sided with the call for early elections , says a lurch to the left could be a necessary evil on the path to democracy .