retch - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

• IPA^(key): /ɹɛt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɛtʃ
• Homophone: wretch

From Middle English *recchen, *rechen (attested in arechen), hræcen (“to cough up”), from Old English hrǣċan (“to clear the throat, hawk, spit”), from Proto-West Germanic *hrākijan, from Proto-Germanic *hrēkijaną (“to clear one's throat”), from Proto-Indo-European *kreg- (“to caw, crow”). Cognate with Icelandic hrækja (“to hawk, spit”), Limburgish räöke (“to induce vomiting”), Bavarian reckn (“to retch, gag”) and German recken (“to retch, gag”). Also related with German Rachen (“throat”).

• reach (archaic or dialectal)

retch (third-person singular simple present retches, present participle retching, simple past and past participle retched)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as if to vomit; to gag or nearly vomit.

   • 1819–1824, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London, (please specify |canto=I to XVII):

     Here he grew inarticulate with retching.

2. (transitive, intransitive, loosely) To vomit; to make or experience a successful effort to vomit.

   • 1836, The Medico-chirurgical Review, and Journal of Practical Medicine, page 462:

     […] in a couple of hours they were seized with violent retching; the contents of their stomachs were mixed with blood, mucus, and froth.

   • 1891, Cincinnati Medical Advance, page 101:

     […] severe, with a heavy retching; the contents of the stomach would come up rather easily at first, but as it continued the retching became more severe. By the straining to vomit, all the symptoms were […]

   • 2014 April 7, Rob Gittins, The Poet and the Private Eye, Y Lolfa, →ISBN:

     […] retching the contents of his breakfast – his fabled raw eggs and beer by the look of it – up onto the sidewalk. But some sort of salvation seemed to be at hand in the shape of a young woman who now came up to the retching poet. […]

   • 2014 June 4, Jake E. Sampson, The Resurrectionist, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 37:

     “What manner of being are you?” I cried. The creature's black tar viscera flew from the lacerated stump, covering Mary and myself in the fluid. I recall instantly retching the contents of my stomach, while simultaneously […]

   • 2020 August 11, Tony Bertauski, Maze: The Essence of Sunny Grimm, Tony Bertauski:

     Retching the contents from his lungs. The uncomfortable warble of voices called for help, greeting him at the floor. He was laid on a gurney, the slimy contents wiped from his face. The sting of needles inserted in his arms.

retch (plural retches)

1. An unsuccessful effort to vomit.

• heave

From Middle English recchen (“to care; heed”), from Old English rēċċan, variant of rēċan (“to care; reck”), from Proto-Germanic *rōkijaną (“to care”), from Proto-Indo-European *reǵ- (“straight, right, just”).

retch (third-person singular simple present retches, present participle retching, simple past and past participle retched)

1. (ambitransitive, obsolete) To reck.

• retchless

From Middle English recchen, from Old English reċċan (“to stretch, extend”), from Proto-West Germanic *rakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *rakjaną (“to straighten, stretch”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃roǵéyeti.

retch (third-person singular simple present retches, present participle retching, simple past and past participle retched or (obsolete) raught)

1. (dialectal) Alternative form of reach

• ECtHR, chert, Recht