different between linch vs winch

English

Alternative forms

• lynch

Etymology

From Template:linh, link, from Old English hlinc (“a hill”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /l?n?/
• Rhymes: -?n?

Noun

linch (plural linches)

1. A ledge, a terrace; a right-angled projection; a lynchet.
   • 1910, An introduction to the study of local history and antiquities, page 387:

     Within ten years linches were formed; rain washed down the mould, some accident arrested it at a certain line, and a terrace was the result. Certainly the tendency is for the upper part of such a field to be denuded of mould, to be worked "to the bone," i.e. to the bare chalk or stone. But the first makers of linches had no choice. They had to farm on slopes or not at all, […]

   • 2013, Peter James, Nick Thorpe, Ancient Mysteries ?ISBN, page 289:

     Indeed, a map of 1844 marks some of the lower terraces on the southern and eastern flanks of the hill as "Tor Linches," a linch or lynchet being a terrace of land wide enough to plot. (Some linches were deliberately Fashioned; others came about as the land flattened into platforms through being worked.)

2. (rare, regional or obsolete) An acclivity; a small hill or hillock.
   • 15th century, anonymous, Mum and the Sothsegger (15th c.)

     I lay down on a linch to lithe my bones.

Derived terms

• linchy

Related terms

• lynchet

References

• linch in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “link, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• Wright, Joseph (1902) The English Dialect Dictionary?^[1], volume 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 610

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /w?nt?/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Etymology 1

From Middle English wynche, from Old English win?e, from Proto-Germanic *winkij?, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”), whence also wink.

Noun

winch (plural winches)

1. A machine consisting of a drum on an axle, a friction brake or ratchet and pawl, and a crank handle or prime mover (often an electric or hydraulic motor), with or without gearing, to give increased mechanical advantage when hauling on a rope or cable.
2. (nautical) A hoisting machine used for loading or discharging cargo, or for hauling in lines. (FM 55-501).
   • 2013, J. M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus. Melbourne, Australia: The Text Publishing Company. chapter 27. p. 267.

     It runs on clattering steel tracks; the driver sits in a cab over the tracks, operating the controls that rotate the arm and turn the winch.

3. A wince (machine used in dyeing or steeping cloth).
4. A kick, as of an animal, from impatience or uneasiness.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shelton to this entry?)

Translations

Verb

winch (third-person singular simple present winches, present participle winching, simple past and past participle winched)

1. To use a winch

   Winch in those sails, lad!

Translations

Etymology 2

See wince.

Verb

winch (third-person singular simple present winches, present participle winching, simple past and past participle winched)

1. To wince; to shrink
   • 1812 Joanna Baillie The Dream, Act 1

     It is not the first time a cat-o'-nine-tails has been across my back for other men's misdeeds. Promise me a good flask of brandy when I'm done with it, and I warrant ye I'll never winch.

2. To kick with impatience or uneasiness.