Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to deceive, to get the better of; to steal.

1575		Appius and Virginia in Farmer (1908) 41: Then – gallop to see where her father doth lurch.
1592		Greene Defence of Conny-Catching 19: Was not this an old Conycatcher [...] that could lurtch a poor Conny of so many thousands at one time?
1609		Jonson Silent Woman V iv: You have lurch’d your friends of the better halfe of the Garland, by concealing this part of the plot.
1613		Middleton Chaste Maid in Cheapside III ii: Now we shall have such pocketing; See how they lurch at the lower end.
a.1661		‘Answer to a Letter from Sir John Mennis’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 210: Our Gossip spoons away were lurcht, / Our Feasts and Fees for Women churcht.
1665		‘R.M.’ Scarronides 12: A good cloath coat, the Rogues did lurch.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Lurched, Beaten at any Game.
1728		Vanbrugh & Cibber Provoked Husband I i: Throw a familiar Levant upon some sharp lurching Man of Quality.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1760		Foote The Minor 31: Lurch me at four, but I was mark’d to the top of your trick, by the baron, my dear.
1789		Thrale Thraliana ii 5 Feb. 729: Countrywomen, & have as the Phrase is, had a hard Card to play; yet never Lurched by Tricksters, nor subdued by superior Powers .
1796		T. Morton Way to Get Married in Inchbold (1808) XXV 8: So! lurched every way; stocks, insurance, hops, hazard, and green peas, all over the left shoulder.

2. (UK Und.) to abandon.

1859

Matsell Vocabulum 53: ‘Lurch the booby, he has leaked his insides out to the coppers,’ abandon the fool, he has told the officers all he knows.