quinch

Q10U1I1N1C3H4

verb

To twitch, as if in pain; flinch, wince.

OriginMiddle English *quinchen →
Scrabble 20
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Meanings

verbquinch (third-person singular simple present quinches, present participle quinching, simple past and past participle quinched)

present singular third person quinches · participle present quinching · participle past quinched · past quinched

  1. intransitiveobsoleteTo twitch, as if in pain; flinch, wince.

    And therupon to beſtow all my Soldiers in ſuch ſort as I have done, that no part of all that Realm ſhall be able to dare to quinch […]

    1598, Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande, page 213

Origin

  1. Middle Englishwinchen“to flinch, wince; veer or move away”
  2. Middle Englishquicchen
  3. Middle English*quinchen
  4. Englishquinch

First attested 1530 as quynche, possibly from unrecorded Middle English *quinchen, itself of obscure origin. Perhaps a fusion of Middle English quicchen, quecchen (“to shake, tremble; twitch, flinch”) and Middle English winchen (“to flinch, wince; veer or move away”), making it equivalent to a blend of quitch + winch. Compare Saterland Frisian kwinkje (“to blink, wink with the eyes”), Middle Dutch quincken, quinken ("to shake, quiver"; whence modern Dutch kwinken, kwinkeleren (“to warble”)), German Low German quinken (“to blink, wink”).

More words from Middle English

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Qichun
Cite this entry
APA

quinch. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quinch

MLA

“quinch.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quinch. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quinch,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quinch.

Source: quinch on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.