MEANING
1. To move suddenly and forcefully forward, often to attack or seize something, or such a movement.
2. An exercise in which one leg steps forward while the knees bend and the body lowers.
Use it for
showing a sudden attempt to grab an object; describing a forceful forward attack; contrasting a decisive thrust with tentative movementCaptures a sudden forceful forward movement, with the more controlled exercise use kept distinct. Writing functions: Sudden Movement.
Words that belong together
- lunge at someone
- lunge forward
- a sudden lunge
On the page
He lunged for the falling glass and caught only the stem.
One lunge brought the stranger across the narrow space between the doors.
She completed the lunge slowly, watching the line of her knee in the mirror.
The instructor distinguished a controlled lunge from simply falling into the forward step.
Word forms
- Base
- lunge
- Past tense
- lunged
- Past participle
- lunged
- Present participle
- lunging
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- lunge
- Present continuous
- am/is/are lunging
- Present perfect
- have/has lunged
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been lunging
- Past
- lunged
- Past continuous
- was/were lunging
- Past perfect
- had lunged
- Past perfect continuous
- had been lunging
- Future
- will lunge
- Future continuous
- will be lunging
- Future perfect
- will have lunged
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been lunging
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Verb and count noun. Lunges, lunged, lunged, lunging; future will lunge. Lunge at, toward, or forward. Noun plural lunges; do not add lunging separately. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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