- a sudden, unsteady movement that moves you forward or to the side and nearly makes you lose your balance
- The train gave a violent lurch.
- His heart gave a lurch when he saw her.
- The car started with a lurch.
Extra Examples- John felt a lurch of fear in his stomach.
- She made a sudden lurch towards him.
- The reason for the plane's sudden lurch to the ground is unknown.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- sickening
- sudden
- violent
- …
- give
- feel
- with a lurch
- lurch into
Word Originnoun late 17th cent. (as a noun denoting the sudden leaning of a ship to one side): of unknown origin. leave somebody in the lurch. mid 16th cent. (denoting a state of discomfiture): from French lourche, the name of a game resembling backgammon, used in the phrase demeurer lourche ‘be discomfited’.
Idioms
See lurch in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionaryleave somebody in the lurch
- (informal) to fail to help somebody when they are relying on you to do so
- I’m sorry to leave you in the lurch but I can’t do the presentation with you this afternoon.
- She felt she had been left in the lurch by all her colleagues.
Check pronunciation:
lurch