leave in the lurch

Idioms  

1. Abandon or desert someone in difficult straits. For example, Jane was angry enough to quit without giving notice, leaving her boss in the lurch. This expression alludes to a 16th-century French dice game, lourche, where to incur a lurch meant to be far behind the other players. It later was used in cribbage and other games, as well as being used in its present figurative sense by about 1600.

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Example Sentences

“The majority’s rule will leave in the lurch the many states, private parties and legal researchers who relied on the previously bright-line rule” between statutes and annotations, he wrote.

From New York Times • Apr. 27, 2020

It’s not just prisoners whom private prison contractors leave in the lurch, though.

From The Guardian • Jan. 21, 2016

To frustrate or disappoint; to deceive or defraud, by nonfulfillment of engagement; to leave in the lurch; to give the slip to; as, to bilk a creditor.

From Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (2nd 100 Pages) by Webster, Noah

She hoped to find a yet better site, and, by undertaking at once both purchase of land and construction of the building, with a liberal endowment added, to leave in the lurch all philanthropic rivals.

From Our Friend the Charlatan by Gissing, George

For five hundred thousand florins he would leave in the lurch all the brave nobles who have come out to fight for their country.

From The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders and elsewhere by Coster, Charles de