lurch

Meanings

Noun

• A sudden or unsteady movement.
• An old game played with dice and counters; a variety of the game of tables.
• A double score in cribbage for the winner when his/her adversary has not yet pegged his/her 31st hole.

Verb

• To make such a sudden, unsteady movement.
• To swallow or eat greedily; to devour; hence, to swallow up.
• To leave someone in the lurch; to cheat.
• To rob.
• To evade by stooping; to lurk.
• To defeat in the game of cribbage with a lurch .

Origin

• Originally a nautical term, possibly from French lâcher ("to let go").
• From Latin lurcāre.
• From French lourche, from Proto-West Germanic *lort ("left; left-handed; crooked; bent; warped; underhanded; deceitful; limping"). Cognate to English lirt.