Brewer's: Lurch

To leave in the lurch. To leave a person in a difficulty. In cribbage a person is left in the lurch when his adversary has run out his score of sixty-one holes before he himself has turned the corner (or pegged his thirty-first) hole. In cards it is a slam, that is, when one of the players wins the entire game before his adversary has scored a single point or won a trick.

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