▪ I. pech, n. Sc. and north. dial.
(pɛːx, pɛː{cced})
Also 7–9 pegh.
[Goes with pech v.]
A short laboured breath, a pant after exertion.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xiii. 53 Ȝung monkis..thair hait flesche dantis, Full faderlyk, with pechis and pantis. 1572 Lament. Lady Scot. 400 He gaif ane greit pech, lyke ane weill fed stirk. a 1624 Bp. M. Smith Serm. xiv. (1632) 257 He made but a pegh at it, saying, She gaue me, that, that without cruelty she could not take from me. 1824 Blackw. Mag. XVI. 89 Don't conclude your draught with a pegh like a paviour. 1884 Ibid. Feb. 231 With a ‘pech’ of satisfaction. |
▪ II. pech, v. Sc. and north. dial.
(pɛːx, pɛː{cced})
Also 6 peigh, 7 peach, 8–9 pegh, (9 peich, north. Eng. dial. peff, peck).
[app. onomatopœic, with the p of puff, pant and other explosive words, and the imitative ending found also in hech, stech.]
intr. To breathe hard from exertion, to fetch the breath short, to pant.
| c 1440 York Myst. xl. 84 For pechyng als pilgrymes that putte are to pees. 1572 Lament. Lady Scot. 269 Now mon thay wirk and labour, pech and pant. 1595 Duncan App. Etymol. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Anhelo, to peigh or pant. a 1598 Rollock On the Passion xx. (1616) 188 He will tye the burthen of them on their owne backes, whilest they grone and peach. 1721 Ramsay Prospect of Plenty 73 Peching fou sair. 1780 Mayne Siller Gun ii. v, They wha had corns, or broken wind, Begood to pegh and limp behind. 1786 Burns Willie Chalmers i, My Pegasus I'm got astride, And up Parnassus pechin [rime brechan]. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Peff,..to breathe with difficulty. 1894 Crockett Raiders (ed. 3) 199 At a pace that made me pech..like a wind-galled nag. |