lurk

/lɜːk/US/lɝk/

lurk verb: to remain concealed in order to ambush.

Verb

lurk (third-person singular simple present lurks, present participle lurking, simple past and past participle lurked)

To remain concealed in order to ambush.
- Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort...2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55
- Things lurking in the dark / They like to leave a mark / Inside of you2024, Jackie Evancho, “Behind My Eyes”, in Solla
To remain unobserved.
- Thus my plight was evil indeed, for I had nothing now to burn to give me light, and knew that 'twas no use setting to grout till I could see to go about it. Moreover, the darkness was of that black kind that is never found beneath the open sky, no, not even on the darkest night, but lurks in close...[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC
- But in time pressure ... Sammy played 40 QxPch????, thinking it was mate- he completely forgot about that Black Bishop lurking innocently at the other end of the board.1973 November, Burt Hochburg, “Mecking Making It and other stories”, in Chess Life & Review
To hang out or wait around a location, preferably without drawing attention to oneself.
- if we find the sophist lurking, we must round him up by royal command of the argument2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 235c
(Internet) To read an Internet forum without posting comments or making one's presence apparent.
(UK, slang, transitive) To saddle (a person) with an undesirable task or duty.
- As junior dogsbody, he was lurked with this mission.2015, Andrew Gordon, The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command

Noun

lurk (plural lurks)

The act of lurking.
- At two p.m. a man had called on him, and had produced one of his advertisements, and had asked him if that was all square—no bobbies on the lurk.1873, Charles Reade, chapter XXVIII, in A Simpleton: A Story of the Day […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 261
- There were enemies on the lurk and time was against him.1921, George Colby Borley, The Lost Horizon
(Australia, UK, obsolete, slang) A swindle.

lurk meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

lurk in Bengali

ওত পেতে থাকা, লুকিয়ে থাকা, গুপ্তভাবে থাকা

lurk in Telugu

to lurk: జుణుగు juṇugu

More languagesFewer languages

lurk in Malayalam: പതിയിരിക്കുക, പതുങ്ങിയിരിക്കുക, മറഞ്ഞിരിക്കുക
lurk in Kannada: ಬಚ್ಚಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡಿರು, ಅಡಗಿಕೊಂಡಿರು, ಹೊಂಚು ಹಾಕು, ಕಾದಿರು

Examples of lurk in a sentence

Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema.2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:
[…] barked furiously and made at him as at a wolf, and before he could wholly rise from the lurk because of the sudden consternation, […]1955, John Maxwell Edmonds Longus, Daphnis et Chloe:

All 40 example sentences with lurk

Forms of lurk

Verb
third-person singular present	lurks
present participle	lurking
past participle	lurked
past	lurked
Noun
plural	lurks

Past tense of lurk: lurked

Origin of lurk

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”).

Words formed from lurk

Phrases with lurk

lurk more

Words that rhyme with lurk

35 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about lurk

What does lurk mean?: Lurk means to remain concealed in order to ambush.
What is lurk in Tamil?: Lurk in Tamil is ஒளிந்திரு, காத்திரு, பதுங்கியிரு. See Lurk meaning in Tamil.
How do you use lurk in a sentence?: Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema.
What part of speech is lurk?: Lurk can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce lurk?: Lurk is pronounced /lɜːk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of lurk?: The past tense of lurk is lurked.

Words near lurk in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: lurk (page history and authors); lurk (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lurk (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Lurk (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); జుణుగు (Telugu) (page history and authors); lurk (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lurk (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lurk.wav.

Cite this entry: “lurk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lurk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.