Quitch

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kwɪtʃ/

From Middle English quicchen, quytchen, quecchen, from Old English cweċċan ("to shake, swing, move, vibrate, shake off, give up"), from Proto-Germanic *kwakjaną ("to shake, swing"), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷog- ("to shake, swing"). Related to Old English cwacian ("to quake"). More at quake.

Alternative forms

• quich, queach, queatch, quinch, quetch

Full definition of quitch

Verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To shake (something); to stir, move. 8th-13th c.
2. (intransitive, now UK, regional) To stir; to move. from 13th c.
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.9:With a strong yron chaine and coller bound,
  That once he could not move, nor quich at all ….
3. (intransitive) To flinch; shrink.

From Middle English quicche, from Old English cwice, from Middle Low German kweke. Cognate with German Quecke, Dutch kweek.

Alternative forms

• quich obsolete

Noun

1. A species of grass, often considered a weed.
• 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin 2005, p. 21:we found the bones and ashes half mortered unto the sand and sides of the Urne; and some long roots of Quich, or Dogs-grass wreathed about the bones.

Derived terms

• (plant) couch, couch-grass