Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Retch

Retch (rĕch or rēch; 277), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Retched; p. pr. & vb. n. Retching.] [AS. hræcan to clear the throat, hawk, fr. hraca throat; akin to G. rachen, and perhaps to E. rack neck.] To make an effort to vomit; to strain, as in vomiting. [Written also reach.]

Beloved Julia, hear me still beseeching! (Here he grew inarticulate with retching.) Byron.

Retch, v. t. & i. [See Reck.] To care for; to heed; to reck. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.