Lunge
//lʌnd͡ʒ// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A sudden forward movement, especially with a sword.
"A moment of madness from double goalscorer Kalinic put Rovers' fate back in the balance when the Croat caught Scharner with a late, dangerous lunge and was shown a straight red card by referee Phil Dowd."
- 2 the act of moving forward suddenly wordnet
- 3 A long rope or flat web line, more commonly referred to as a lunge line, approximately 20–30 feet long, attached to the bridle, lungeing cavesson, or halter of a horse and used to control the animal while lungeing.
- 4 (fencing) an attacking thrust made with one foot forward and the back leg straight and with the sword arm outstretched forward wordnet
- 5 An exercise performed by stepping forward one leg while kneeling with the other leg, then returning to a standing position.
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- 6 A fish, the namaycush.
Verb
- 1 To (cause to) make a sudden forward movement (present participle: lunging). ambitransitive
"I lunged at the police officer and made a grab for her gun."
- 2 make a thrusting forward movement wordnet
- 3 To longe or work a horse in a circle around a handler (present participle: lunging or lungeing). transitive
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"At length, in a desperate lunge, which he followed with an attempt to close, Bucklaw's foot slipped, and he fell on the short grassy turf on which they were fighting."
Etymology
From French allonge, from Old French alonge, from alongier, from Vulgar Latin *allongare, from ad + Late Latin longare, from Latin longus. Doublet of allonge.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.