Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To toss.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To toss.
  • verb intransitive To walk or move in a quick, lively, or pert manner.
  • verb intransitive To gambol; frisk.
  • verb transitive To deceive; beguile.
  • verb transitive To cheat; befool.
  • noun Deception; guile.
  • noun A cheat; a go-by.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin obscure. Perhaps alteration of lirk ("to jerk").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lirten, lurten ("to cheat"), from Old English *lyrtan (found only in belyrtan ("to deceive")), from Proto-Germanic *lurtijanan (“to deceive”), from Proto-Indo-European *lerd- (“to bend, crook”). Cognate with Scots lirt ("to cheat, deceive, delude"), Middle High German lürzen ("to deceive"), Middle High German lerz, lurz, lorz ("left, left-handed"), Old English lort, lyrt ("crooked").

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Examples

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  • Deception, trick.

    May 12, 2008