retch

present singular third person retches · participle present retching · participle past retched · past retched · alternative reach

1. intransitivetransitiveTo 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)

2. broadlyintransitivetransitiveTo 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

   4 more examples

   […] 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, Cincinnati Medical Advance, page 101

   […] 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 retching poet.[…]

   2014 April 7, Rob Gittins, The Poet and the Private Eye, Y Lolfa, →ISBN

   “What manner of being are you?” I cried. The creature's black tar viscera flew from the lacerated stump, covering Mary and myself in the fluid. I recall instantly retching the contents of my stomach, while simultaneously […]

   2014 June 4, Jake E. Sampson, The Resurrectionist, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 37

   Retching the contents from his lungs. The uncomfortable warble of voices called for help, greeting him at the floor. He was laid on a gurney, the slimy contents wiped from his face. The sting of needles inserted in his arms.

   2020 August 11, Tony Bertauski, Maze: The Essence of Sunny Grimm, Tony Bertauski

plural retches · alternative reach

1. An unsuccessful effort to vomit.

present singular third person retches · participle present retching · participle past retched · past retched

1. ambitransitiveobsoleteTo reck.

present singular third person retches · participle present retching · participle past retched · past retched · obsolete participle past raught · obsolete past raught

1. alternativedialectalAlternative form of reach.