Library / English Dictionary

LURK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Wait in hiding to attack

Synonyms:

ambuscade; ambush; bushwhack; lie in wait; lurk; scupper; waylay

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "lurk" is one way to...):

wait (stay in one place and anticipate or expect something)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

lurker (someone waiting in concealment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be about

Example:

Who is this man that is hanging around the department?

Synonyms:

footle; hang around; lallygag; linger; loaf; loiter; lollygag; lounge; lurk; mess about; mill about; mill around; tarry

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "lurk" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lurk"):

lurch; prowl (loiter about, with no apparent aim)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

lurk; skulk

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "lurk" is one way to...):

conceal; hide (prevent from being seen or discovered)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

lurker (someone waiting in concealment)

Credits

 Context examples: 

But there was still something lurking behind, of which prudence forbade the disclosure.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

No lurking horrors were to upbraid him for his easy credulity.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Hudson had been seen lurking about, and it was believed by the police that he had done away with Beddoes and had fled.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But he was now married; and she condemned her heart for the lurking flattery, which so much heightened the pain of the intelligence.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Although mushroom experts can identify deadly mushrooms just by looking at their appearance, experts cannot see the toxin chemicals that lurk inside.

(New Test Identifies Poisonous Mushrooms, Agricultural Research Service)

Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east of London Bridge.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The jungle and the wilderness lurked in the uplift and downput of his feet.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

“The foul fiend may lurk beneath a garment of light. We must have some sign or warrant of your mission.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And could not such words from her whom I fondly prized before every other gift of fortune suffice to chase away the fiend that lurked in my heart?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Supermassive black holes lurk in the cores of most galaxies, and when they gobble up matter they also heat the surrounding gas and expel it from the host galaxy in powerful, dense winds.

(Stars Born in Winds from Supermassive Black Holes, ESO)