IN THE LURCH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does in the lurch mean? 

• IN THE LURCH (adverb)
  The adverb IN THE LURCH has 1 sense:

1. in a difficult or vulnerable position

  Familiarity information: IN THE LURCH used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IN THE LURCH (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a difficult or vulnerable position

Context example:

he resigned and left me in the lurch

Domain usage:

idiom; idiomatic expression; phrasal idiom; phrase; set phrase (an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up)

 Context examples 

It is not his fault, I promise you, that you should be left in the lurch.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the first occasion Mr. Thomas Traddles was left—let me say, in short, in the lurch.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“Ah, Mr Fox,” cried the cat. “You with your hundred arts are left in the lurch! Had you been able to climb like me, you would not have lost your life.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Her readers were not particular about such trifles as grammar, punctuation, and probability, and Mr. Dashwood graciously permitted her to fill his columns at the lowest prices, not thinking it necessary to tell her that the real cause of his hospitality was the fact that one of his hacks, on being offered higher wages, had basely left him in the lurch.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It wasn't fair to tell a man to bring folks home any time, with perfect freedom, and when he took you at your word, to flame up and blame him, and leave him in the lurch, to be laughed at or pitied.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And you left him in the lurch, didn't you? You let him go to jail for a month over in New Jersey. God! You ought to hear Walter on the subject of you.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)