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quinch. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
quinch, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
quinch in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
quinch you have here. The definition of the word
quinch will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
quinch, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
First attested 1530 as quynche, possibly from unrecorded Middle English *quinchen, itself of obscure origin. Perhaps a fusion of Middle English quicchen, quecchen (“to shake, tremble; twitch, flinch”) and Middle English winchen (“to flinch, wince; veer or move away”), making it equivalent to a blend of quitch + winch.
Compare Saterland Frisian kwinkje (“to blink, wink with the eyes”), Middle Dutch quincken, quinken ("to shake, quiver"; whence modern Dutch kwinken, kwinkeleren (“to warble”)), German Low German quinken (“to blink, wink”).
Verb
quinch (third-person singular simple present quinches, present participle quinching, simple past and past participle quinched)
- (obsolete, intransitive) To twitch, as if in pain; flinch, wince.
1598, Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande, page 213:And therupon to beſtow all my Soldiers in ſuch ſort as I have done, that no part of all that Realm ſhall be able to dare to quinch […]
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