Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1200-1300
Origin: Probably from Low German or a Scandinavian language

lurk

 verb
     
lurk [intransitive ]
1 to wait somewhere quietly and secretly, usually because you are going to do something wrong
lurk in/behind/beneath/around etc
She didn't see the figure lurking behind the bushes.
2 if something such as danger, a feeling etc lurks somewhere, it exists, but you may not see it or know about it:
a dark formless danger, lurking in the shadows
3 if you lurk in a chat room on the Internet, you read what other people are writing to each other, but you do not write any messages yourself
lurk in
I think it's sort of creepy how people lurk in chat rooms.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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