Link Centre Dictionary

lurk

UK/lɜːk/ US/lɝk/ uncommon obsolete slang uk

verb

1.

lie in wait, lie in ambush, behave in a sneaky and secretive manner

Synonyms
2.

be about

  • “The high school students like to loiter in the Central Square”
  • “Who is this man that is hanging around the department?”

Origin

From Middle English lurken, from Old Norse *lúrka, possibly from Proto-Germanic *lūrukōną (“to be lying in wait, lurk”), equivalent to lour + -k (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk lurka (“to sneak away, go slowly”), dialectal Swedish lurka (“to dawdle, be slow in one's work”), Saterland Frisian lüürkje (“to look secretly, spy”), West Frisian luorkje (“to lurk”), Middle Low German lûrken (“to deceitfully stalk”).

Phrases

  • lurk moar

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.