quitch
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kwɪtʃ/
Etymology 1
From Middle English quicchen, quytchen, quecchen, from Old English cweċċan (“to shake, swing, move, vibrate, shake off, give up”), from Proto-Germanic *kwakjaną (“to shake, swing”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷog- (“to shake, swing”). Related to Old English cwacian (“to quake”). More at quake.
Verb
quitch (third-person singular simple present quitches, present participle quitching, simple past and past participle quitched)
- (transitive, obsolete) To shake (something); to stir, move. [8th-13th c.]
- (intransitive, now Britain, regional) To stir; to move. [from 13th c.]
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.9:
- With a strong yron chaine and coller bound, / That once he could not move, nor quich at all […].
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.9:
- (intransitive) To flinch; shrink.
Etymology 2
From Middle English quicche, from Old English cwice. Cognate with German Quecke, Dutch kweek, Middle Low German kweke.
Alternative forms
- quich (obsolete)
Noun
quitch (uncountable)
- couch grass (a species of grass, often considered a weed)
- 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin 2005, p. 21:
- we found the bones and ashes half mortered unto the sand and sides of the Urne; and some long roots of Quich, or Dogs-grass wreathed about the bones.
- 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin 2005, p. 21:
Derived terms
- (plant): couch, couch-grass
Translations
couch grass — see couch grass
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