▪ I. quitch, n.1
(kwɪtʃ)
Forms: 1 quice, cwice, etc., 6 quyche, 7–8 quich, 7 cuich, quoich, 6– quitch. See also quick n.2, couch n.2, and twitch.
[OE. cwice = MLG. kweke (hence G. quecke), Du. kweek; usually supposed to be related to cwic, quick a., in reference to its vitality.]
1. A species of grass. = couch n.2
| a 700 Epinal Gloss. 464 Gramen, quiquae [Erfurt quicae, Corpus quice]. c 1000 Sax. Leechd. I. 182 ᵹenym þysse wyrte leaf þe man gramen & oðrum naman cwice nemneð. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §14 All these maner of otes weare the ground very sore, and maketh it to beare quyche. 1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriot. 22 Some long roots of Quich, or Dogs-grass wreathed about the bones. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Corn land, A good fallowing..will kill the Quitch Sorrel, moss and other trumpery. 1816 F. Vanderstraeten Improved Agric. p. xv, Destroying weeds, and particularly quitch or dog-grass. 1884 Britten & Holland Plant-n. 394. |
| fig. 1859 Tennyson Enid 1751 The vicious quitch Of blood and custom. |
b. Also quitch-grass in same sense.
| 1587 L. Mascall Govt. Cattle, Oxen (1627) 73 [It] groweth in some Gardens like to a quitch grasse. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 206 The Quich-grasse..or Dogs-grasse, is the commonest herbe that groweth. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 66 You avoid Quich-grass, and other Weeds. 1840 Browning Sordello iv. 23 The thoroughfares were overrun with weed—Docks, quitchgrass. |
† 2. quitch-hay (see quot.). Obs. rare—1.
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §25 Quyche hey commeth of a grasse called crofote,..and it is the beste hey for horses and beastes, and the sweteste. |
▪ II. † quitch, n.2
obs. variant of twitch n.
| 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme i. xxii. 271 Two straight rules of wood as it were..quitches or pincers. |
▪ III. † quitch, n.3
obs. variant of coach.
| a 1693 Aubrey Lives, W. Aubrey (1898) I. 60 He kept his coach, which was rare in those dayes. The Judge told me they then (vulgarly) called it a Quitch. |
▪ IV. quitch
variant of quetch v.