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. (transitive, intransitive) To make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as if to vomit; to gag or nearly vomit.
   • 1819–1824, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London, (please specify |canto=I to XVII):

     Here he grew inarticulate with retching.

2. (transitive, intransitive, loosely) To vomit; to make or experience a successful effort to vomit.
   • 1836, The Medico-chirurgical Review, and Journal of Practical Medicine, page 462:

     […] in a couple of hours they were seized with violent retching; the contents of their stomachs were mixed with blood, mucus, and froth.

   • 1891, Cincinnati Medical Advance, page 101:

     […] 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 […]

   • 2014 April 7, Rob Gittins, The Poet and the Private Eye, Y Lolfa, →ISBN:

     […] 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. […]

   • 2014 June 4, Jake E. Sampson, The Resurrectionist, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 37:

     “What manner of being are you?” I cried. The creature's black tar viscera flew from the lacerated stump, covering Mary and myself in the fluid. I recall instantly retching the contents of my stomach, while simultaneously […]

   • 2020 August 11, Tony Bertauski, Maze: The Essence of Sunny Grimm, Tony Bertauski:

     Retching the contents from his lungs. The uncomfortable warble of voices called for help, greeting him at the floor. He was laid on a gurney, the slimy contents wiped from his face. The sting of needles inserted in his arms.

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
• Ottoman Turkish: اوكورمك (öğürmek)
• 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, basquear (es)
• Swedish: hulka (sv)
• Tagalog: pagsuka
• Turkish: öğürmek
• 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

See also

• heave

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

• ECtHR, chert, Recht