retch
An unsuccessful effort to vomit.
Noun
- An unsuccessful effort to vomit.
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”).
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Verb Entry 2
- To 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. - 1819–1824, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London, (please specify |canto=I to XVII):
- To 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. - 1836, The Medico-chirurgical Review, and Journal of Practical Medicine, page 462:
- […] 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 […] - 1891,...
- […] 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...
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Verb ambitransitive, obsolete
- To reck.
Origin
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”).
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Verb alt of, alternative
- Alternative form of reach.
Origin
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.