retch
Verbretches, retching, retched
Noun pluralretches
Formsretches, retching, retched
Pluralretches
- 1To make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm as if vomiting without bringing anything up.
Like an engine turning over again and again without ever starting.
The stench from the alley was strong enough to make anyone retch.
He retched several painful, empty spasms before the nausea finally passed.
Note
Behind the gag is an older sound. Old English hrǣċan meant to clear the throat, hawk or spit, and its root goes back to a word for cawing or crowing. The verb keeps the noise and the strain but brings nothing up: Byron's Don Juan has a man grow "inarticulate with retching." It works with or without an object, and context separates it from the looser "vomit" meaning.
- 2To vomit; to bring up the contents of the stomach through the mouth.
After the rough boat ride, several passengers leaned over the rail to retch.
She retched the last of the spoiled fish into the bucket.
Similarvomit
Note
Here the heaving succeeds, and something does come up. Medical writing used it this way early on: The Medico-chirurgical Review of 1836 describes violent retching that brought up the stomach's contents. When you need to be clear, add an object. In "retching the contents of his breakfast" or "retching the contents of my stomach," the object rules out the empty, dry heave.
- 3An unsuccessful effort to vomit; a strain or spasm that brings nothing up.
A sudden retch shook her whole body, though nothing came up.
The patient's repeated retches alarmed the nurse on duty.
Similarheave
- 4Alternative form of reach. Dialectal; in standard English retch means to try to vomit.
Note
Some dialects use this spelling for reach, and its roots are honest: Old English reċċan, "to stretch, extend". It covers the same ground as the standard verb, such as stretching out a hand, passing something over, or getting hold of what is high up. Outside dialect speech, write reach. The spelling collides with the gagging verb, which descends from a different word, hrǣċan, "to clear the throat", so "retch the apples" can read as nausea.
Less common meaning
- 5A spelling of reck, meaning to care, or to take notice of something and heed it.
Note
A different word that happens to share this spelling. It comes from Old English rēċċan, a variant of rēċan, "to care," the ancestor of reck, and it has nothing in common with the gagging verb except its letters. Like reck, it could stand alone ("to care") or take an object ("to heed something"). You will meet it in older texts, but it is not one to write today. Modern readers will hear only the gag.
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Origins
From Middle English recchen, from Old English hrǣċan ("to clear the throat, hawk, spit"), going back through Proto-Germanic *hrēkijaną ("to clear one's throat") to Proto-Indo-European *kreg- ("to caw, crow"). It is cognate with Icelandic hrækja ("to hawk, spit") and German recken ("to retch, gag").
From Middle English recchen ("to care; heed"), from Old English rēċċan, a variant of rēċan ("to care; reck"), from Proto-Germanic *rōkijaną ("to care"), from Proto-Indo-European *reǵ- ("straight, right, just").
From Middle English recchen, from Old English reċċan ("to stretch, extend"), from Proto-West Germanic *rakkjan and Proto-Germanic *rakjaną ("to straighten, stretch"), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃roǵéyeti.