Lurch | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Lürch, n.

noun

[W. lurch, or llerc, a frisk, a frisking backward or forward, a loitering, a lurking, llercia, llerciau, to be idle, to frisk or loiter about, to lurk.] (Naut.) A sudden roll of a ship to one side.

At lurch, hidden or secreted for a purpose, especially to pilfer. [Obs.] Burton.—Lee lurch (Naut.), a sudden roll to the leeward, as when a heavy sea strikes the ship on the weather side.—To give a lurch, to tell a falsehood; to deceive. [Obs.] Halliwell.—To leave in the lurch, to leave in a difficult situation, or in embarrassment; to leave in a forlorn state, or without help.

Lŭrch, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. [imp. & p. p. LURCHED (lŭrcht); p. pr. & vb. n. LURCHING.] [See supra.]

To withdraw to one side, or to a private place; to lie in ambush or in secret; to lie close; to lurk.
To dodge; to shift; to play tricks.

I am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch. Shak. 3. To roll or pass suddenly to one side, as a ship in a heavy sea.

Lŭrch, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [See supra, and cf. infra.] [Rare.]

Sense 1. To steal; to pilfer; to rob; to intercept.

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

Sense 2. To defeat; to disappoint; to evade. “An instrument which never fails, or lurches the great agent who employs it.” South.

Lürch, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [Lat. lurcare, lurcari. See LURCATION.] 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 every thing dear. Bacon.