retch

1. 1.

   an involuntary spasm of ineffectual vomiting

   “a bad case of the heaves”

   Synonymsheave

   Broaderspasm

Other forms of retch

plural

retches·

past tense

retched·

present participle

retching·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about retch

What does retch mean?

retch means "eject the contents of the stomach through the mouth". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in retch?

retch has 1 syllable under the regular spelling rules, and is not divided further. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

What is another word for retch?

Close synonyms include vomit, vomit up, purge, cast, sick. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is retch a common word?

retch is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.