retch
verbEtymology
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”).
- inherited from *hrākijan✻
- inherited from *recchen✻
Definitions
To make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit
To make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as if to vomit; to gag or nearly vomit.
- Here he grew inarticulate with retching.
To vomit
To vomit; to make or experience a successful effort to vomit.
- […] in a couple of hours they were seized with violent retching; the contents of their stomachs were mixed with blood, mucus, and froth.
- […] 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 […]
- […] 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.[…]
An unsuccessful effort to vomit.
›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer
To reck.
Alternative form of reach.
The neighborhood
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for retch. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA