retch

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɛt͡ʃ/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtʃ
• Homophone: wretch

Etymology 1

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”).

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; to gag.
   • 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)
• Czech: dávit se impf
• 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
• 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)

• Dutch: braakneiging (nl)
• French: haut-le-cœur (fr)
• Italian: conato (it) m, conato di vomito m
• Maori: whakapoutikitanga
• Persian: هراش (fa) (harâš)
• Portuguese: arranco (pt) m
• 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) Alternative form of reach

Anagrams

• chert