retch

• IPA^(key): /ɹɛt͡ʃ/

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• Rhymes: -ɛtʃ
• Homophone: wretch

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”).

• reach (archaic or dialectal)

retch (third-person singular simple present retches, present participle retching, simple past and past participle retched)

1. To make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain, as in vomiting; to gag.
   • 1819–1824, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London, (please specify |canto=I to XVII):

     Here he grew inarticulate with retching.

retch (plural retches)

1. An unsuccessful effort to vomit.

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”).

retch (third-person singular simple present retches, present participle retching, simple past and past participle retched)

1. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To reck.

• retchless

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.

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

• chert