Meanings
itching1
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of itch
itching2
plural itchings
- 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 Mental Pathology, page 71Synonyms: pruritus
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA sensation that itches.
More synonyms by meaning
nounan irritating cutaneous sensation that produces a desire to scratch
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
itching · verb
- Proto-West Germanic*jukkjandi
- Old Englishġiċċende“itching”
- Middle Englishecchinge
- Englishitching
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.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
Full word history & related roots →itching · noun
- Middle Englishicchynge
- Englishitching
From Middle English icchynge, ichynge, ycchenge, yecchyng, ʒicchunge (also unassibilated as ʒykynge), equivalent to itch + -ing.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish kutina, kutka
- kutinasensation
- kutkasensation
- syyhytyssensation
- syyhyäminensensation
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with itching
All rhymes →Cite this entry
itching. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/itching
“itching.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/itching. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “itching,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/itching.
Source: itching on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.