Link Centre Dictionary

retch

UK/ɹɛt͡ʃ/ uncommon obsolete
verb (2) noun (1)

verb

1.

eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth

  • “After drinking too much, the students vomited”
  • “He purged continuously”
  • “The patient regurgitated the food we gave him last night”
Synonyms
Antonyms
2.

make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit

Synonyms

noun

1.

an involuntary spasm of ineffectual vomiting

  • “a bad case of the heaves”
Synonyms

Origin

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”).

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.