tetch

tetch (third-person singular simple present tetches, present participle tetching, simple past and past participle tetched)

1. (regional) Eye dialect spelling of touch.
   • 1877, Samuel Woodworth Cozzens, The Young Trail Hunters‎:

     "Wal, I sot there, eatin' away, and, the fust thing I knowed, I kind 'er felt suthin' tetch my shoulder.

   • 1880, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Roughing It‎:

     The minute we'd tetch off a blast 'n' the fuse'd begin to sizzle, he'd give a look as much as to say: 'Well, I'll have to git you to excuse me,' an' it was surpris'n' the way he'd shin out of that hole 'n' go f'r a tree.

   • 1919, O. Henry, Roads of Destiny‎:

     "Miss Lucy tetch you on de shoulder," continued the old man, never heeding, "wid a s'ord, and say: 'I mek you a knight, Suh Robert--rise up, pure and fearless and widout reproach.'

tetch (plural tetches)

1. Eye dialect spelling of touch.
   • 2001 November 2, Monica Kendrick, “Spot Check”, in Chicago Reader‎:

     The three songs I've heard so far are low-key and restrained, with a tetch of honky-tonk tension--the sound of a heart being bounced up and down like a squishy yo-yo.