Idiom
leave someone in the lurch
Meaning
To abandon somebody; especially, to abandon somebody and leave him or her in a difficult situation.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Don't leave me in the lurch with all this work.”
“My partner quit the project at the last minute, leaving me in the lurch to finish everything alone.”
“By failing to arrive for the final performance, the lead actor left the rest of the cast in the lurch, forcing them to improvise the entire show.”
Examples
simple
“Don't leave me in the lurch with all this work.”
contextual
“My partner quit the project at the last minute, leaving me in the lurch to finish everything alone.”
complex
“By failing to arrive for the final performance, the lead actor left the rest of the cast in the lurch, forcing them to improvise the entire show.”
Origin
See entry for left in the lurch
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated