lurch

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To stagger. See Synonyms at blunder.
2. v. To roll or pitch suddenly or erratically: The ship lurched in the storm. The car gave a start and then lurched forward.
3. n. A staggering or tottering movement or gait.
4. n. An abrupt rolling or pitching.
5. n. The losing position of a cribbage player who scores 30 points or less to the winner's 61.
6. idiom. in the lurch In a difficult or embarrassing position.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To lie in concealment; lurk; move stealthily.
2. To sulk; pout.
3. To shift; dodge; play tricks.
4. To roll or sway suddenly to one side, or from side to side, as a ship in a heavy sea or a carriage on a rough road.
5. To walk with an uneven or shifting gait; stagger: as, he went lurching down the street.
6. n. A sudden lateral movement or swaying to one side, as of a ship, a carriage, or a staggering person.
7. n. Hence Any sudden or unexpected shift or change of position.
8. n. An inclination; disposition; leaning.
9. To swallow or devour; eat up; consume.
10. n. An old game, the nature of which is unknown.
11. n. In cribbage, the position of a player when his opponent has won every point (61 holes) before he himself has made 30 holes; also, the state of the game under these circumstances; a double game.
12. n. [⟨ lurch, verb] A cheat; a swindle.
13. n. To leave suddenly or unexpectedly in an embarrassing predicament.
14. To win a double game in cribbage, piquet, etc.
15. To leave in the lurch; disappoint.
16. To forestall; rob; swindle; cheat.
17. To capture criminally or dishonestly; appropriate; steal.
18. To take (game) with a lurcher. See lurcher, 2.

Wiktionary

1. n. A sudden or unsteady movement.
2. v. To make such a sudden, unsteady movement.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. obsolete To swallow or eat greedily; to devour; hence, to swallow up.
2. n. An old game played with dice and counters; a variety of the game of tables.
3. n. A double score in cribbage for the winner when his adversary has been left in the lurch.
4. v. obsolete To leave in the lurch; to cheat.
5. v. obsolete To steal; to rob.
6. n. Fig. A sudden roll of a ship to one side, as in heavy weather; hence, a swaying or staggering movement to one side, as that by a drunken man. A sudden and capricious inclination of the mind.
7. v. To roll or sway suddenly to one side, as a ship or a drunken man; to move forward while lurching.
8. v. To withdraw to one side, or to a private place; to lurk.
9. v. To dodge; to shift; to play tricks.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a decisive defeat in a game (especially in cribbage)
2. v. move abruptly
3. v. move slowly and unsteadily
4. v. walk as if unable to control one's movements
5. n. an unsteady uneven gait
6. v. defeat by a lurch
7. n. abrupt up-and-down motion (as caused by a ship or other conveyance)
8. v. loiter about, with no apparent aim
9. n. the act of moving forward suddenly