lurch

Etymology 1

Originally a nautical term, possibly from French lâcher (“to let go”).

noun

1. A sudden or unsteady movement.
   the lurch of a ship, or of a drunkard
   The ship was driving rapidly towards the rocky coast, against which she must have been dashed to pieces had she kept afloat a few minutes longer, but she gave a lurch and went down, rose again for an instant, and with another lurch sank, and all was over,—and there were nearly two hundred and fifty human beings struggling with the waves. 1850, William O. S. Gilly, “The Tribune”, in Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy[…], London: John W. Parker

verb

1. To make such a sudden, unsteady movement.

Etymology 2

From Latin lurcāre .

verb

1. (obsolete) To swallow or eat greedily; to devour; hence, to swallow up.

Etymology 3

From Middle English *lurche (implied in derivative lurching), from Old French lourche (“deceived, embarrassed; also the name of a game”), from Proto-West Germanic *lort (“left; left-handed; crooked; bent; warped; underhanded; deceitful; limping”). Cognate to English lirt.

noun

1. An old game played with dice and counters; a variety of the game of tables.
2. A double score in cribbage for the winner when his/her adversary has not yet pegged his/her 31st hole.
   August 14, 1784, Horace Walpole, letter to the Hon. H. S. Conway Lady Blandford has cried her eyes out on losing a lurch.

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To leave someone in the lurch; to cheat.
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To rob.
3. (obsolete, intransitive) To evade by stooping; to lurk.
4. (transitive) To defeat in the game of cribbage with a lurch (double score as explained under noun entry).