1. Lunge lustily or listingly at something.
2. Alternately, a quick, clumsy movement.
2. One of the permanent characters of the Addams Family sitcom. The one that growled and played the harpsichord.

Lurch (?), v. i. [L. lurcare, lurcari.]

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. Bacon.

 

© Webster 1913.


Lurch, n. [OF. lourche name of a game; as adj., deceived, embarrassed.]

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 adversary has been left in the lurch.

Lady --- has cried her eyes out on losing a lurch. Walpole.

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. Denham.

But though thou'rt of a different church, I will not leave thee in the lurch. Hudibras.

 

© Webster 1913.


Lurch, v. t.

1.

To leave in the lurch; to cheat.

[Obs.]

Never deceive or lurch the sincere communicant. South.

2.

To steal; to rob.

[Obs.]

And in the brunt of seventeen battles since He lurched all swords of the garland. Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.


Lurch, n. [Cf. W. llerch, llerc, a frisk, a frisking backward or forward, a loitering, a lurking, a lurking, llercian, llerciaw, to be idle, to frisk; or perh. fr. E. lurch to lurk.]

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.

 

© Webster 1913.


Lurch (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Lurched (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Lurching.]

To roll or sway suddenly to one side, as a ship or a drunken man.

 

© Webster 1913.


Lurch, v. i. [A variant of lurk.]

1.

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

L'Estrange.

2.

To dodge; to shift; to play tricks.

I . . . am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch. Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.

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