retch

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɛt͡ʃ/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtʃ
• Homophone: wretch

Etymology 1

From Middle English *recchen, *rechen (attested in arechen), hræcen, 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”). Also related with German Rachen (“throat”).

Alternative forms

• reach (archaic or dialectal)

Verb

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

1. To make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain, as in vomiting.
   • 1819–1824, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London, (please specify |canto=I to XVII):

     Here he grew inarticulate with retching.

Translations

to make an effort to vomit

• Bulgarian: гади ми се (gadi mi se), повдига ми се (povdiga mi se)
• Danish: gylpe
• Dutch: kokhalzen (nl), braken (nl)
• Finnish: kakoa (fi)
• Galician: arquexar (gl)
• German: würgen (de)
• Hungarian: öklendezik (hu)
• Italian: avere conati di vomito
• Maori: pūtanetane, whakapoutiki, pūkanekane
• Mongolian: огих (mn) (ogix)
• Norman: haler au tchoeu
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: rwać (pl) (impersonal, the person afflicted is put in accusative)
• Portuguese: engulhar
• Russian: пыта́ться (ru) (pytátʹsja) рыгнуть (ru) (rygnutʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: на̀пињати се на повраћање

  Roman: nàpinjati se na povraćanje

• Spanish: tener arcadas
• Swedish: hulka (sv)
• Tagalog: pagsuka
• Vietnamese: ọe (vi)

Noun

retch (plural retches)

1. An unsuccessful effort to vomit.

Translations

an unsuccessful effort to vomit

• Bulgarian: гадене (bg) n (gadene), повдигане (bg) n (povdigane)
• Catalan: arcada (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 乾嘔／干呕 (zh) (gān'ǒu),干呕 (zh) (gān'ǒu)

• Dutch: braakneiging (nl)
• French: haut-le-cœur (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: conato (it) m, conato di vomito m
• Maori: whakapoutikitanga
• Persian: هراش (fa) (harâš)
• Spanish: arcada (es) f

Etymology 2

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”).

Verb

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

1. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To reck

Related terms

• retchless

Etymology 3

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.

Verb

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

1. (dialectal) to reach

Anagrams

• chert