the.com/lurch

means To tilt or stagger suddenly and unsteadily, as if the ground — or your own legs — just betrayed you.

from English actually fused two different 'lurch' stories. The 'leave someone in the lurch' sense comes from an old French dice/board game called 'lourche,' where to be left 'in the lurch' meant stuck in a bad losing position, far behind your opponent. The staggering, unsteady-walk sense arrived later and is likely linked instead to nautical language — ships 'lurching' in heavy seas, a sudden roll to one side. The two meanings grew close enough in feel (both are about being thrown off, caught out, unbalanced) that they've comfortably shared one word ever since, even though their roots aren't the same tree.