lurch

noun

1. A sudden or unsteady movement.

   “the lurch of a ship, or of a drunkard”

   “The ship was driving rapidly towards the rocky coast, against which she must have been dashed to pieces had she kept afloat a few minutes longer, but she gave a lurch and went down, rose again for an instant, and with another lurch sank, and all was over,—and there were nearly two hundred and fifty human beings struggling with the waves.”

   “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.”

2. (dialectal)A lift or heave.
3. (countable, uncountable)A predicament or difficult situation.

   “to leave someone in the lurch”

4. (countable, uncountable)An old game played with dice and counters; a variety of the game of tables.
5. (countable, uncountable)A double score in cribbage for the winner when their adversary has not yet pegged their 31st hole.

   “August 14, 1784, Horace Walpole, letter to the Hon. H. S. Conway Lady Blandford has cried her eyes out on losing a lurch.”

verb

1. To make such a sudden, unsteady movement.

   “It occurred to me there was no time to lose, and dodging the boom as it once more lurched across the deck, I slipped aft and down the companion stairs into the cabin.”

   “The incident made it think, apparently, that the neighborhood was dangerous, for it slowly lurched off through the wood, followed by its mate and its three enormous infants.”

   “Number One lurched forward, his arms outstretched toward the horror stricken girl.”

   “He was looking for trouble. He lurched against a table at which three soldiers were sitting and knocked over a glass of beer.”

2. (obsolete)To swallow or eat greedily; to devour; hence, to swallow up.

   “Too far off from great cities, which may hinder business; too near them, which lurcheth all provisions, and maketh everything dear.”

3. (dialectal, intransitive)To evade by stooping; to lurk; lie in wait; go about in a sneaking way.
4. (dialectal, intransitive)To take by surprise; to unexpectedly detain.
5. (obsolete, transitive)To rob.

   “And in the brunt of seventeen battles since / He lurched all swords of the garland.”

6. (transitive)To defeat in the game of cribbage with a lurch (double score as explained under noun entry).
7. (obsolete, transitive)To leave someone in the lurch; to cheat.

   “Never deceive or lurch the sincere communicant.”