itching

A sensation that itches.

Noun

  1. A sensation that itches.
    • Itchings, hitherto unknown, are felt all over the body, and render my skin sometimes painfully tender, sometimes quite benumbed, as if it were dead. - 1856, Forbes Winslow, The Journal of Psychological Medicine and...

    Synonyms: pruritus

Origin

From Middle English icchynge, ichynge, ycchenge, yecchyng, ʒicchunge (also unassibilated as ʒykynge), equivalent to itch + -ing.

Forms

itchings

Related

pruritic

Derived

itching powder

Verb

  1. present participle and gerund of itch

Origin

From Middle English ecchinge, ȝitchinge, ʒicchinde, ʒichande (also unassibilated as yckyng), from Old English ġiċċende (“itching”), from Proto-West Germanic *jukkjandi, present participle of *jukkjan (“to itch”), equivalent to itch + -ing.

Derived

itchingly