Lurching

[lurch] /lɜrtʃ/

noun
1.
an act or instance of swaying abruptly.
2.
a sudden tip or roll to one side, as of a ship or a staggering person.
3.
an awkward, swaying or staggering motion or gait.
verb (used without object)
4.
(of a ship) to roll or pitch suddenly.
5.
to make a lurch; move with lurches; stagger:
The wounded man lurched across the room.
[lurch] /lɜrtʃ/
verb (used with object)
1.
Archaic. to do out of; defraud; cheat.
2.
Obsolete. to acquire through underhanded means; steal; filch.
verb (used without object)
3.
British Dialect. to lurk near a place; prowl.
noun
4.
Archaic. the act of lurking or state of watchfulness.
/lɜːtʃ/
verb (intransitive)
1.
to lean or pitch suddenly to one side
2.
to stagger or sway
noun
3.
the act or an instance of lurching
/lɜːtʃ/
noun
1.
leave someone in the lurch, to desert someone in trouble
2.
(cribbage) the state of a losing player with less than 30 points at the end of a game (esp in the phrase in the lurch)
/lɜːtʃ/
verb
1.
(intransitive) (archaic or dialect) to prowl or steal about suspiciously
n.

“sudden pitch to one side,” 1784, from earlier lee-larches (1765), a nautical term for “the sudden roll which a ship makes to lee-ward in a high sea, when a large wave strikes her, and bears her weather-side violently up, which depresses the other in proportion” [“Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences,” London 1765]; perhaps from French lacher “to let go,” from Latin laxus (see lax).

When a Ship is brought by the Lee, it is commonly occaſsioned by a large Sea, and by the Neglect of the Helm’s-man. When the Wind is two or three Points on the Quarter, the Ship taking a Lurch, brings the Wind on the other Side, and lays the Sails all dead to the Maſt; as the Yards are braced up, ſhe then having no Way, and the Helm being of no Service, I would therefore brace about the Head ſails ſharp the other Way …. [John Hamilton Moore, Practical Navigator, 8th ed., 1784]

“predicament,” 1580s, from Middle English lurch (v.) “to beat in a game of skill (often by a great many points),” mid-14c., probably literally “to make a complete victory in lorche,” a game akin to backgammon, from Old French lourche. The game name is perhaps related to Middle English lurken, lorken “to lie hidden, lie in ambush,” or it may be adopted into French from Middle High German lurz “left,” also “wrong.”
v.

1821, from lurch (n.1). Related: Lurched; lurching.
see: leave in the lurch