lurch
1 Americannoun
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an act or instance of swaying abruptly.
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an awkward, swaying or staggering motion or gait.
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a sudden tip or roll to one side, as of a ship or a staggering person.
noun
idioms
verb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
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Archaic. to do out of; defraud; cheat.
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Obsolete. to acquire through underhanded means; steal; filch.
noun
verb
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to lean or pitch suddenly to one side
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to stagger or sway
noun
noun
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to desert someone in trouble
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cribbage the state of a losing player with less than 30 points at the end of a game (esp in the phrase in the lurch )
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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lurchsimple
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lurchessimple
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have lurchedperfect
-
has lurchedperfect
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am lurchingprogressive
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are lurchingprogressive
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is lurchingprogressive
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have been lurchingperfect progressive
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has been lurchingperfect progressive
Past
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lurchedsimple
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had lurchedperfect
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was lurchingprogressive
-
were lurchingprogressive
-
had been lurchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of lurch1
First recorded in 1800–10; origin uncertain
Origin of lurch2
First recorded in 1525–35; from Middle French lourche a game, noun use of lourche (adjective) “defeated,” from a Germanic language; compare Middle High German lurz “left (hand); wrong,” lürzen “to deceive,” Old English belyrtan “to deceive”
Origin of lurch3
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English lorchen “to skulk,” apparently variant of lurken lurk
Explanation
To lurch is to suddenly move — usually forward. If you are on a ship that lurches a lot during a storm, you may find your body lurching in one direction and your stomach going in the opposite one. The verb lurch can refer to any abrupt movement, but it often has the sense of a sharp turn up, down, or sideways. If you invest in the stock market, you have to be prepared for sudden losses and gains as the stock market can lurch up or down on a whim. The verb also means to make sudden jerking movements when walking, as if you cannot control your movements.
Vocabulary lists containing lurch
The Diary of Anne Frank
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List 7
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The Cay
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And we jump—not as high as we might, but with a lurch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Treasury yields continued to lurch higher — helping to put more pressure on stocks, which struggled during the first trading session of the week.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
This growing practice is the result of insurers shifting more costs to patients, which leaves hospitals in the lurch when bills go unpaid, said Molly Smith, vice president at the American Hospital Association.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
Tech shares have seen rollercoaster volatility in recent days, as investors lurch between bullish optimism over sustained AI demand, and fears that the big valuations are unrealistic.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
I felt a lurch of disappointment that my time with Sahil was almost over.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
That said, if the SOX lurches toward that lower support level in the next few weeks, they view that as “a tradable buying opportunity.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
It’s a dynamic production, with a distorted bassline that lurches and synths that flutter on the verses and explode on the choruses, signaling a moment of dancefloor ecstasy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
A few minutes later, the SUV lurches forward, then drives slowly down the street.
From Slate ● Feb. 11, 2026
Will then lurches into a tut-tutting recapitulation of the French army chief of staff’s public statement that his nation’s people must accept the risk of losing their children to protect France from an unnamed aggressor.
From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025
By the time the bus finally lurches to our stop, I’m more than happy to get on it.
From "A Mango-Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass
As he began his bid to win two majors in the same season for the first time since 2014, McIlroy lurched from the sublime off the tee to the ridiculous on the green.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
LONDON—British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has lurched from crisis to crisis but managed to cling to power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
Wembanyama lurched forward, toppled and slammed the right side of his face on the floor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
Ever since the Covid pandemic exposed the fragility of global supply chains, the shipping industry has lurched from one market-disrupting event to another.
From Barron's ● Apr. 22, 2026
The choir lurched and stumbled somewhere near the proper melody.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
The slinky, lurching “Husbands,” “Islands of Men” and frantic “Bow Down” sounded meaner and more electric than on the record.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
Maybe this is what the Chargers are — lurching, sputtering and unable to consistently move the football, despite an offensive overhaul packed with lofty expectations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
On social-media platforms like X, some investors have loudly proclaimed that after years of serving as the dominant cryptocurrency, bitcoin might finally be lurching toward irrelevance.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 4, 2026
The former Marine uses the lurching, 15,000-pound vehicle to bore a path through the soil for future fiber-optic lines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 1, 2026
The fish was pulling so hard that the little boat was plowing and lurching through the waves.
From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
