different between ketch vs retch

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?t?/

• Rhymes: -?t?

Etymology 1

From Middle English catche, from cacchen (“to catch”). For the modern form with /?/, compare the pronunciation /k?t?/ of catch.

Noun

ketch (plural ketches)

1. A fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel with two masts, main and mizzen, the mizzen being stepped forward of the rudder post.
   • 1720, Daniel Defoe, Captain Singleton, London: J. Brotherton et al., p. 313,^[1]

     […] to finish her new Habit or Appearance, and make her Change compleat, he ordered her Sails to be alter’d; and as she sailed before with a Half-Sprit, like a Yacht, she sailed now with square Sail and Mizen Mast, like a Ketch; so that, in a Word, she was a perfect Cheat […]

Translations

Descendants

• ? Dutch: kits

See also

• yawl.

Further reading

• ketch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

See catch.

Verb

ketch (third-person singular simple present ketches, present participle ketching, simple past and past participle ketched)

1. Pronunciation spelling of catch.
   • 1815, D. HUMPHREYS, Yankey in England, I. 21,

     I guess, he is trying to ketch mebut it won't du. I'm tu old a bird to be ketch'd with chaff.

   • 1865, Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, II. IV. xv., page 287

     Wot is it, lambs, as they ketches in seas, rivers, lakes, and ponds?

   • 1883 [see KNUCK 2].
   • 1916, W. O. BRADLEY, Stories & Speeches 18

     You'll never ketch me hollerin' at no Republican gatherin'.

   • 1929, H. W. ODUM, in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973), page 184

     If so you gonna ketch hell.

   • 1967, Atlantic Monthly, Apr. 103/1

     You heard about that joke a dollar down and a dollar when you ketch me?

   • 1968 S. STUCKEY, in A. Chapman, New Black Voices (1972), page 445

     Run, nigger, run, de patrollers will ketch you.

Etymology 3

From Jack Ketch, a hangman of the 17th century.

Verb

ketch (third-person singular simple present ketches, present participle ketching, simple past and past participle ketched)

1. (rare) To hang.
   • 1681, T. FLATMAN Heraclitus Ridens No. 14

     'Squire Ketch rejoices as much to hear of a new Vox, as an old Sexton does to hear of a new Delight.

   • n.d., Ibid;;. No. 18

     Well! If he has a mind to be Ketch'd, speed him say I.

   • 1840, Fraser's Mag., XXI. 210

     Ignorant of many of the secrets of ketchcraft.

   • 1859, MATSELL Vocab. s.v. (Farmer),

     I'll ketch you; I'll hang you.

Noun

ketch (plural ketches)

1. A hangman.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?
• Homophone: wretch

Etymology 1

From Middle English *recchen, *rechen (attested in arechen), hræcen, from Old English hr??an (“to clear the throat, hawk, spit”), from Proto-West Germanic *hr?kijan, from Proto-Germanic *hr?kijan? (“to clear one's throat”), from Proto-Indo-European *kreg- (“to caw, crow”). Cognate with Icelandic hrækja (“to hawk, spit”), Limburgish räöke (“to induce vomiting”). Also related with German Rachen (“throat”).

Alternative forms

• reach (archaic or dialectal)

Verb

retch (third-person singular simple present retches, present participle retching, simple past and past participle retched)

1. To make an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain, as in vomiting.
   • 1819-1824, Lord Byron, Don Juan

     Here he grew inarticulate with retching.

Translations

Noun

retch (plural retches)

1. An unsuccessful effort to vomit.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English recchen (“to care; heed”), from Old English r???an, variant of r??an (“to care; reck”), from Proto-Germanic *r?kijan? (“to care”), from Proto-Indo-European *re?- (“straight, right, just”).

Verb

retch (third-person singular simple present retches, present participle retching, simple past and past participle retched)

1. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To reck

Related terms

• retchless

Etymology 3

From Middle English recchen, from Old English re??an (“to stretch, extend”), from Proto-West Germanic *rakkjan, from Proto-Germanic *rakjan? (“to straighten, stretch”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?ro?éyeti.

Verb

retch (third-person singular simple present retches, present participle retching, simple past and past participle retched or (obsolete) raught)

1. (dialectal) to reach

Anagrams

• chert