lurched; lurching; lurches
1
: to move with a lurch
suddenly lurched forward
2
: to roll or tip abruptly : pitch
1
: an abrupt jerking, swaying, or tipping movement
the car moved forward with a lurch
also
: stagger sense 2
2
: a sudden roll of a ship to one side
: a decisive defeat in which an opponent wins a game by more than double the defeated player's score especially in cribbage
lurched; lurching; lurches
Synonyms
Examples of lurch in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
TIME, 10 Apr. 2024
At the sound of his brother’s voice, Jeff lurched away from me as though he’d been burned.
—Aryn Kyle, Harper's Magazine, 26 Feb. 2024
Several guides lurch forward to demonstrate on a dummy.
—Jesse Ashlock, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Apr. 2024
Who hasn’t attributed the occasional pang or jab to sleeping in a weird position, slouching at a desk for eight hours, or lurching to grab something off the floor in a slightly wonky way?
—Sarah Klein, SELF, 5 Mar. 2024
Television The women who provided abortions before Roe give a ‘grim’ glimpse of life after it
June 8, 2022
Season 6 is set in North Carolina, a once purple Southern state that has lurched rightward the last few election cycles.
—Meredith Blake, Los Angeles Times, 1 Mar. 2024
Rocket has undertaken multiple rounds of employee buyouts since the mortgage industry lurched from boomtimes to a slump once mortgage rates started climbing in early 2022 from historic lows.
—Detroit Free Press, 28 Feb. 2024
Its war plan lacked an ending—and so, unsurprisingly, the war never really ended, with the conflict lurching from one battle to another for years to come.
—Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024
By then, Surf City had lurched closer to Van Der Mark’s red worldview.
—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024
Corey Masisak, The Denver Post, 14 Apr. 2024
But almost immediately, people felt the stomach-jolting lurch of an aftershock.
—John Yoon, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2024
Other chains, such as Walmart and Target, have attempted to open small stores in cities such as Chicago and Baltimore and wound up closing, leaving communities in a lurch.
—Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN, 15 Mar. 2024
Elsewhere, subsidized programs often disappear when the money runs out, leaving the people most in need of transportation in the lurch and without core services.
—Ari Plachta, Sacramento Bee, 7 Mar. 2024
Freeway traffic shuffles, lurches, or, as in La La Land, gives up on the idea of going anywhere at all.
—Curbed, 29 Nov. 2023
As the wildest Mountain West race in history lurches into its final month, with, incredibly, seven teams at either three or four conference losses, the separation may come from who handles the madness the best.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Feb. 2024
The back-and-forth has left Ohio families of transgender children in a lurch.
—Anumita Kaur, Washington Post, 24 Jan. 2024
Read more When Congress flirts with a government shutdown, student loan borrowers are left in the lurch.
—USA TODAY, 12 Jan. 2024
Verb
In the 1980s, however, Republicans lurched rightward.
—TIME, 10 Apr. 2024
At the sound of his brother’s voice, Jeff lurched away from me as though he’d been burned.
—Aryn Kyle, Harper's Magazine, 26 Feb. 2024
Several guides lurch forward to demonstrate on a dummy.
—Jesse Ashlock, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Apr. 2024
Who hasn’t attributed the occasional pang or jab to sleeping in a weird position, slouching at a desk for eight hours, or lurching to grab something off the floor in a slightly wonky way?
—Sarah Klein, SELF, 5 Mar. 2024
Television The women who provided abortions before Roe give a ‘grim’ glimpse of life after it
June 8, 2022
Season 6 is set in North Carolina, a once purple Southern state that has lurched rightward the last few election cycles.
—Meredith Blake, Los Angeles Times, 1 Mar. 2024
Rocket has undertaken multiple rounds of employee buyouts since the mortgage industry lurched from boomtimes to a slump once mortgage rates started climbing in early 2022 from historic lows.
—Detroit Free Press, 28 Feb. 2024
Its war plan lacked an ending—and so, unsurprisingly, the war never really ended, with the conflict lurching from one battle to another for years to come.
—Gideon Rose, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024
By then, Surf City had lurched closer to Van Der Mark’s red worldview.
—Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 21 Mar. 2024
Noun
Recently, there have been extreme lurches in different directions, vacillating between dominant and confounding performances from game to game.
—Corey Masisak, The Denver Post, 14 Apr. 2024
But almost immediately, people felt the stomach-jolting lurch of an aftershock.
—John Yoon, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2024
Other chains, such as Walmart and Target, have attempted to open small stores in cities such as Chicago and Baltimore and wound up closing, leaving communities in a lurch.
—Nathaniel Meyersohn, CNN, 15 Mar. 2024
Elsewhere, subsidized programs often disappear when the money runs out, leaving the people most in need of transportation in the lurch and without core services.
—Ari Plachta, Sacramento Bee, 7 Mar. 2024
Freeway traffic shuffles, lurches, or, as in La La Land, gives up on the idea of going anywhere at all.
—Curbed, 29 Nov. 2023
As the wildest Mountain West race in history lurches into its final month, with, incredibly, seven teams at either three or four conference losses, the separation may come from who handles the madness the best.
—Mark Zeigler, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Feb. 2024
The back-and-forth has left Ohio families of transgender children in a lurch.
—Anumita Kaur, Washington Post, 24 Jan. 2024
Read more When Congress flirts with a government shutdown, student loan borrowers are left in the lurch.
—USA TODAY, 12 Jan. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lurch.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to lurch
Dictionary Entries Near lurch
Cite this Entry
“Lurch.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lurch. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
lurch
1 of 3 noun
: an overwhelming defeat in a game (as cribbage)
lurch
2 of 3 noun1
: a sudden roll of a ship to one side
2
: a sudden jerking, swaying, or tipping movement
the car gave a lurch
also
: a staggering gait
lurch
3 of 3 verb1
: to roll or tip suddenly
2
: to move with a lurch
suddenly lurched forward
also
: stagger entry 1 sense 1
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share