lurk /lɜːk $ lɜːrk/ BrE AmE verb [intransitive]
[ Date: 1200-1300 ; Origin: Probably from Low German or a Scandinavian language ]
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.