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Lurk vs Insidious - What's the difference?

lurk | insidious |

As a verb lurk

is to remain concealed in order to ambush.

As a noun lurk

is the act of lurking.

As an adjective insidious is

producing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner.

lurk

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To remain concealed in order to ambush.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Travels and travails , passage=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 and its foes’ glee.}}
  • To remain unobserved.
  • * 1898 , , (Moonfleet) Chapter 4
    • 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 and covered places and strains the eyes in trying to see into it.
  • To hang out or wait around a location, preferably without drawing attention to oneself.
  • * 2005 , (Plato), Sophist . Translation by Lesley Brown. .
    • if we find the sophist lurking , we must round him up by royal command of the argument
  • (Internet) To view an internet forum without posting comments.

    • Derived terms

    * lurker

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of lurking.
  • * 1921 : George Colby Borley, The Lost Horizon
    • There were enemies on the lurk and time was against him.
  • * 1955 : John Maxwell Edmonds Longus, Daphnis et Chloe
    • ... barked furiously and made at him as at a wolf, and before he could wholly rise from the lurk because of the sudden consternation, ...
  • * 2004 : Charles Reade, A Simpleton
    • At two PM 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 .

    insidious

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Producing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner.
  • * 1847 , George Lippard, The Quaker City: or, The monks of Monk-Hall
    • Strong and vigorous man as he looks, Livingstone has been for years the victim of a secret and insidious disease.
  • * 1997 , Matthew Wood, The book of herbal wisdom: using plants as medicine
    • At some point in time they may become the source of an insidious cancer.
  • * 2007 , Sharon Weinstein, Ada Lawrence Plumer, Principles and practice of intravenous therapy
    • The nurse always must be alert to signs of slow leak or insidious infiltration.
  • Intending to entrap; alluring but harmful.
  • * Nathaniel Hawthorne
    • The insidious whisper of the bad angel.
  • * 1948 , D.V. Chitaley (editor or publisher), All India Reporter , volume 3, page 341:
    • All these facts clearly appear to me now to establish that the sanctioned scheme was a part of a bigger and […] more insidious scheme which was to hoodwink the creditors and to firmly establish and consolidate the position […]
  • * 1969 , Dorothy Brewster, John Angus Burrell, Dead reckonings in fiction
    • The atmosphere of this insidious city comes out to meet him the moment he touches the European shore; for in London he meets Maria Gostrey just over from France.
  • * 2005 , Anita Desai, Voices in the City , page 189:
    • This seemed to her the worst defilement into which this insidious city had cheated her and in her agitation, she nearly ran into the latrine, […]
  • * 2007 , Joseph Epstein, Narcissus Leaves the Pool , page 171:
    • This is the insidious way sports entrap you: you follow a player, which commits you to his team. You begin to acquire scraps of utterly useless information about teammates, managers, owners, trainers, agents, lawyers.
    Hansel and Gretel were lured by the witch’s insidious gingerbread house.
  • (nonstandard) Treacherous.
  • * 1858 , Phineas Camp Headley, The life of the Empress Josephine: first wife of Napoleon
    • But with whom do you contract that alliance? With the natural enemy of France — that insidious house of Austria — which detests our country from feeling, system, and necessity.
  • * 1912 , Ralph Straus, The prison without a wall
    • ‘Believe me,’ he shouted, ‘these insidious folk talk dangerous nonsense. I hear they are spouting out their ridiculous platitudes not five miles from this park in which we are standing…’
    The battle was lost due to the actions of insidious defectors.

    Derived terms

    * insidiously * insidiousness

    References

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