in the lurch
1
7.7
- idiom
- Informal
:
en la estacada
- After being let go from her job, she found herself in the lurch, struggling to pay her bills.
Examples
-
When his partner quit the project unexpectedly, he was left in the lurch without any support.
-
She felt abandoned and confused, left in the lurch by her friends who didn’t show up to help her move.
-
It was just basically leaving you in the lurch, Right.
Synonyms
54
7.0
In a risky position without support from others
15
6.3
Someone has no help or basic things in a difficult situation
3
4.0
Unable to leave a place because no help or transport is available
1
7.8
Put suddenly into a difficult situation without preparation or help
1
7.8
In a bad situation that stops progress like being stuck in mud
Antonyms
How Supported
Surface Forms
Morphology
The idiomatic meaning 'left in an awkward or difficult situation' is not predictably built from the literal meanings of 'in' + 'the' + 'lurch'—'lurch' denotes an unsteady movement, which does not transparently map onto abandonment or lack of support. Because the semantic shift is idiomatic and not a standard compositional pattern, a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would most likely not infer the expression's meaning.
Etymology
One popular story says in the lurch comes from the old game lurch, where a player who was suddenly left behind could not win. That's why the phrase now means being 'left without support' or in a difficult, awkward spot.