lurk
lurk
Definition
lurk (lʉrk)
intransitive verb
- to stay hidden, ready to spring out, attack, etc.; lie in wait
- to exist undiscovered or unobserved; be present as a latent or not readily apparent threat
- to move furtively
Etymology: ME lurken, akin to louren (see lower), Norw lurka, to sneak off
lurk
Synonyms
lurk
Usage Examples
Object
- menace: It was traditional in form but beneath the surface there lurked a quiet menace - as exemplified in poems such as The Horses.
- suspicion: And yet I'm left with a lurking suspicion that there is at least one more layer down.
- danger: Inside and outside the hospital lurk dangers to a deposed and dangerous dictator.
Preposition: at
- bottom: However, there are some annoying things lurking at the bottom of one's consciousness, somehow.
Preposition: around
- corner: The Tory disaster you thought you had banished forever lurks just around the corner.
Adjective complement
- unseen: Option theory is similar to an iceberg where the majority of matter lurks unseen.
Modifying Another Word
- menacingly: A tree might lurk menacingly, or a bed might meander aimlessly.
- somewhere: However, lurking somewhere in the tangled mass are some insights worth having.
- everywhere: Horror Films in the 70s: In the 1970s, nightmarish horror and terror lurked everywhere.
Followed by an intransitive particle
- around: It's a great way to clear away all the ghosts lurking around in XP.
Followed by a transitive particle
- around: We do not know who or what is lurking around the corner.
Particle object:
- corner: We do not know who or what is lurking around the corner.
Preposition: in
- shadow: Suppose you saw or even thought you saw a tiger lurking in the nearby shadows.
- undergrowth: There too, it seems to prefer lurking in the undergrowth at the water's edge.
- recess: It is also the reason he constantly returns to the kinds of empirical experiments that lurked in the recesses of Thomas Edison's garage.
- bush: As you come up the driveway to the entrance you see strange animals lurk in the bushes.
- background: These two problems will lurk in the background of all the discussions here.
- darkness: Proceed with caution through the shadows as the deathly, dank dungeon is full of terror lurking in the darkness.
Preposition: for
- while: I've been lurking here for a while and against my better instincts, thought I'd add to the debate.
Preposition: beneath
- surface: In the UK we too have seen the level of underlying violence that lurks beneath the surface within certain elements of this religion.
