quetch, quitch, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Forms: α. 1 cweccan, (cu-), 3 quecchen, queche, 6 queech, queatche, 6–7 que(t)ch; β. (? 3 cwich, quic), 5 qvycch-, qvyhch-, qvytchyn, quycche, 6 quytch(e, quyche, quich, 6–7 quitch, 9 dial. quitchy; γ. 6 (9 dial.) quatch. pa. tense 1 cwæhte, 1, 3 cwehte, 3 quehte, qu-, cuahte, 4 quei(ȝ) te, quaȝte; also 6 quitched, 6–7 quetched, 7 quatched, quitcht.
[OE. cwęccan:—*cwacjan, causative from the root *cwac-: see quake, and cf. OS. quekilik glossing L. versatilem or vibrabilem (gladium). See also aquetch.]
† 1. trans. To shake; to brandish; to drive, chase. Obs. (OE. and early ME.)
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter vii. 13 Nemne ᵹe sien ᵹecerde, sweord his [he] cweceð. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxvii. 39 Þa weᵹferenden..cwehton [v.r. cwæhton] heora heafod. c 1205 Lay. 23907 Heo quehten [c 1275 cwehten] heore scaftes. Ibid. 31475 Hiȝendliche he heom quehte ouer þere Humbre. |
† 2. intr. Of things: To shake, tremble. Obs.
| c 1205 Lay. 20141 Þa eorðe aȝæn quehte [c 1275 cwehte]. Ibid. 26919 Quahten on hafden helmes heȝen. c 1380 Sir Ferumb. 607 So sterne strokes þay arauȝte..Þat al þe erthe þer-of quaȝte a myle & more on lenghþe. |
† 3. intr. To stir or move from one place to another; to go, run, hasten. Obs.
| c 1205 Lay. 826 Ne lete ȝe nenne quick quecchen to holte [c 1275 scapie to felde]. Ibid. 7271 Þa heo weoren ouercumen þæ quahten [c 1275 wenden] heo wide. c 1350 Will. Palerne 4344 Þat werwolf..queite toward þe quene. |
4. intr. Of persons (or animals): a. To move the body or any part of it; to stir; in later use esp. to shrink, wince, twitch (with pain), and usually in negative clauses. Obs. exc. dial.
The phr. cwich ne cweð in Leg. St. Kath. 1261, quic ne queð in Ancr. R. 122 (two MSS.), app. belongs here, meaning ‘stirred nor spoke’, though the form is difficult to account for.
| c 1205 Lay. 25844 Þa fond he þer ane quene quecchen mid hafde. c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 9051 (Kölbing) Þe stede he smot, þat it queiȝte. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 421/1 Qvycchyn, or mevyn. 1530 Palsgr. 677/2, I quytche, I styrre or move with my bodye. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 587 He..never stirred hand nor foot, nor quitched when the fire took him. 1596 Spenser F.Q. v. ix. 33 With a strong yron chaine and coller bound, That once he could not move, nor quich at all. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xxix. i. 357 Simonides..endured the flames, and never quetched [L. immobilis]. 1636 Featly Clavis Myst. iii. 33 He who suffereth all this, quatcheth not, stirreth not. a 1664 Frank Sermons (1672) 147 To..look up stedfastly still, not quich aside. 1685 Cotton tr. Montaigne I. 253, I have seen men..that would neither cry out, wince nor quitch, for a good swinging beating. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Quitchy, to twitch; to make sudden, involuntary movements. |
b. intr. To utter a sound. (Usually in negative clauses). Also with against, at. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1530 Palsgr. 601 She layde upon him lyke a mantle sacke and the poore boye durste nat ones quytche [F. nosa pas tynter]. 1531 Tindale Exp. 1 John (1538) 23 b, Thys doth Paule..so confirme, that all the worlde can not quytch against it. 1657 W. Morice Coena quasi κοινὴ Def. xvi. 256 To snatch their mouths full of earth, that they might not be heard to quetch or groan. 1672 Marvell Reh. Transp. I. 159, I will speak alwayes with so Magisterial a confidence, that no modest man..shall so much as quetch at me. 1847–78 Halliwell, Quatch, to betray, tell... Oxf. 1888 Berksh. Gloss., [? Not to] Quatch, to keep absolute silence as regards a certain subject. |
† c. Freq. in phr. one dare (or durst) not quetch, implying fear or absolute submission. Also const. against, at. Obs.
| 13.. K. Alis. 4747 Dar no man agein hym queche. 1496 Dives & Paup. (W. de W.) ix. viii. 358/1 Be he so solempne & so myghty, that no man dare quycche ayenst hym. 1528 in Furnivall Ballads from MSS. I. 359 Thow knowyste how..mortimer, in þis lande dyd Rule & Rayne, For whom no man durste quyche. 1565 Golding Ovid's Met. v. (1593) 124 The seelie lamb that dares not stirre nor quetch, when he heares the howling of the woolfe. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 975/1 They durst not queech in his presence, but were like a sort of timorous cattell. 1638 Featly Strict. Lyndom. i. 110 A most learned worke, against which never a Papist yet durst quatch. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xix. 67 Which put them in such a fear as they durst not so much as quetch. |
Hence † ˈquetching, ˈquitching vbl. n. Obs.
| 1676 H. More Rem. Disc. Hale 94 The quitching of the skin. |