retch
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Make an unsuccessful effort to vomit.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
rehchIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹɛtʃ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit
transitiveintransitiveloosely
To vomit; to make or experience a successful effort to vomit.
noun
An unsuccessful effort to vomit.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Typical Use
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; strain to vomit
Used this way, retch is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Nearby words
- throw up , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- chuck , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- spew , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- cat , a specialist term, precise but narrower
- barf , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.