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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)

98,828 entries. Headwords are matched first, then definition text.

262 words match “RETCH”

RETCH v. 2 definitions

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

Careless; reckless. [Obs.] Dryden. --- Retch"less*ly, adv. -- Retch"less*ness, n. [Obs.]

See Drecche. [Obs.]

FAR-STRETCHED a.

Stretched beyond ordinary limits.

FAR-STRETCHED; FARSTRETCHED a.

Stretched beyond ordinary limits.

To stretch out. Milton.

STRETCH v. 16 definitions

To reach out; to extend; to put forth. And stretch forth his neck long and small. Chaucer. I in conquest stretched mine arm. Shak.

STRETCHER n. 10 definitions

One who, or that which, stretches.

from Stretch, v. Stretching course (Masonry), a course or series of stretchers. See Stretcher, 2. Britton.

WRETCH n. 2 definitions

A miserable person; one profoundly unhappy. "The wretch that lies in woe." Shak. Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, Wretch even then, life's journey just begun Cowper.

WRETCHED a. 3 definitions

distress, as from want, anxiety, or grief; calamitous; woeful; very afflicting. "To what wretched state reserved!" Milton. O cruel! Death! to those you are more kind Than to the wretched mortals left behind. Waller. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore . . .

WRETCHEDLY adv.

In a wretched manner; miserably; despicable.

WRETCHEDNESS n. 2 definitions

The quality or state of being wretched; utter misery. Sir W. Raleigh.

Wretched. [Obs.] Wyclif.

Reckless; hence, disregarded. [Obs.] -- Wretch"less*ly, adv. [Obs.] -- Wretch"less*ness, n. [Obs.] Bk. of Com. Prayer. Your deaf ears should listen Unto the wretchless clamors of the poor. J. Webster.

Passion; violent emotion. [Obs.] Most wretched man, That to affections does the bridle lend. Spenser.

wounded as soon as possible. Often used adjectively; as, an ambulance wagon; ambulance stretcher; ambulance corps.

The application of the principles of anatomy, as in art. The stretched and vivid anatomism of their [i. e., the French] great figure painters. The London Spectator.

postasy; faithless to moral allegiance; renegade. So spake the apostate angel. Milton. A wretched and apostate state. Steele.

With one leg on each side, as a man when on horseback; with the legs stretched wide apart; astraddle. Placed astride upon the bars of the palisade. Sir W. Scott. Glasses with horn bows sat astride on his nose. Longfellow.