minch

plural minches

1. obsoleteA nun.

present singular third person minches · participle present minching · participle past minched · past minched

1. alternativedialectalAlternative form of mince.

present singular third person minches · participle present minching · participle past minched · past minched

1. alternativeAlternative form of mitch (“play truant from school”).

   William Henry opened the gates for them along the return journey, and at the lodge accepted shamefacedly a penny and a promise of the bad end little boys came to who minched from school.

   1961, Daphne du Maurier, Castle Dor

1. A strait in Scotland, between the north-west Highlands and the northern Inner Hebrides.

   Come all you gallant fishermen, That plough the stormy sea The whole year round, On the fishing grounds Of the Northern Minch and the Norway Deeps, On the banks and knolls of the North Sea holes, Where the herring shoals are found.

   1960, Ewan MacColl, BBC radio ballad Singing the Fishing (transcript)

   2 more examples

   The best Place for a Staple [of herrings], would be at Stornway, in one of the Lewis Islands, which is a good Harbour, and there are many good Hands; also it lies open to the Minch, a Sea above sixty Miles over to the main Land of Scotland, to the Southward of which lies the Isle of Sky, …

   1750, Francis Grant, A Letter to a Member of Parliament Concerning the Free British Fisheries, page 21

   That extensive bason of sea, called the Great, and the Little Minch; bounded on the west, by that chain of islands, called the Long Island, because they seem but one, when viewed at a distance; on the east, by the indented shores of Scotland: from the butt of the Lewis, to the Mull of Kintire, never fails to be filled, every year, with an immense body of herrings.

   1799, Revd. James Headrick, On the Practicability, and Advantages, of Opening a Navigation Between the Murray Firth at Inverness, and Loch Eil, at Fort William, section II Fisheries, from Prize Essays and Transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland, Volume 1, page 388

   Synonyms: North Minch

plural Minches

1. A surname.