/ɹɛt͡ʃ/
OriginFrom 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”).
- intransitive, transitiveTo 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.”
- broadly, intransitive, transitiveTo 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 we”
“[…] 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 no”
- ambitransitive, obsoleteTo reck.
- An unsuccessful effort to vomit.
Formsretches(present, singular, third-person) · retching(participle, present) · retched(participle, past) · retched(past) · reach(alternative) · retches(plural)