▪ I. chinch, n.1
(tʃɪntʃ)
Forms: 7 chince, 7–8 chink, 8 chintse, 9 chintz, 7– chinch. See also cimex.
[a. Sp. chinche, It. cimice:—L. cimic-em bug.]
1. The bed- or house-bug. (A name now confined to U.S.)
| a 1625 Fletcher Loues Pilgr. i. i. (in Spain) Theod. Will you shew me in? Hostess. Yes marry will I, sir: and pray that not a flea or a chink vex you. 1645 Evelyn Diary 29 Sept. 1665 G. Havers P. della Valle's Trav. E. India 372 We were very much troubled with Chinches. 1673 Ray Trav. (1738) I. 352 Chinces, or wall-lice, which are very noisome..by their bitings in the night-time. 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece i. 16 The Floor so furnished with Chinches. 1710 Ray Hist. Insect. 7 Cimex, the Chinche, or Wall-louse..in Angliâ paucis noti. 1730 Southall Bugs 7 He..asked if Chintses (so Buggs are by Negroes and some others there called), had bit me? 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 434 The Chink or Bug..very common in Jamaica. 1844 G. W. Kendall Texan Santa Fé Exped. II. xi. 229 Scarcely had we touched the mattresses before we were visited by myriads of chinches! 1851 R. Burton Goa 4 The impolite animal which the transatlantics delicately designate a ‘chintz’. |
2. chinch-, chink-bug (U.S.): ‘an insect or bug, resembling the bed-bug in its disgusting odour, which is very destructive to wheat and other grasses’ (Webster); also chinch-bug fly.
| 1750 G. Hughes Barbados 84 The Buonavista Chink. This is a small green flattish fly..and smells, when killed, like a bug. 1785 in Southern Lit. Messenger XXVIII. 38/1 The devastation of the Chintz bug, which since harvest have infested the Indian corn. 1786 Washington Diaries (1925) III. 97 Examined the..corn in several parts of this field and discovered more or less of the Chinch bug on every stalk. 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1843) I. 137 America suffers..in its wheat and maize from the attack of..the chintz bug-fly. 1873 J. H. Beadle Undevel. West xiii. 225 Its [sc. wheat's] principal enemy is the chintz bug, so called here. 1886 Edin. Rev. Oct. 356 Corn destroyed by the chinch-bug. 1887 Standard 19 Sept. 2/2 (Iowa) The damage done by chinch bugs. 1959 Southwood & Leston Land & Water Bugs v. 82 The chinchbug, Blissus leucopterus, is an important cereal pest in North America which has spread rapidly over vast areas—this spread is paralleled in western Europe by the recent spread of our single British species. Ibid., Ischnodemus sabuleti (Fallén), European chinchbug. |
▪ II. † chinch, a. and n.2 Obs.
Forms: 3–5 chinche, 4–5 chynche, 5 chynshe, 6 chynch, chince, 4 chyche, 4–5 chiche.
[ME. chiche, a. OF. (and mod.) chiche parsimonious, = Cat. xic, chic little, of little worth, Sp. chico little; cf. It. cica small thing. In later F. it became chinche, by nasalization of i (as in various other words). In Eng. also chinche in later use; often written by copyists, where the rime shows that the original had chiche.]
A. adj. Niggardly, sparing, penurious, parsimonious, miserly.
| a 1300 Havelok 1763 He..dide greyþe a super riche, Also he was no [whit] chinche [so l. 2941]. c 1320 Seuyn Sag. (W.) 1244 And that other lef to pinche, Bothe he was scars and chinche. c 1400 Rom. Rose 5591 He..Lyveth more at ese, & more is riche, Than doth he that is chiche. Ibid. 6001 For chynche & feloun is Richesse, That so can chase hem. |
B. n. A niggard, miser; a wretch.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 12972 (Cott.) Yeitt can þat chinche wit godd to chide. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 604 Þe gentyl cheuentayn is no chyche. c 1386 Chaucer Melib. ¶653 An auaricious man or chynche. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour ciii. 136 A woman shulde not be a chiche of that she hathe in gret plente. 1570 Levins Manip. 134 A chince, parcus. |
▪ III. † chinch, v. Obs. rare.
[f. prec. adj.]
To be niggardly; to stint.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 75 Chynchyn, or sparyn mekylle [H. chinkinge or to mekel sparyn], perparco. a 1450 Langl. P. Pl. C xiii. 227 (MS. Dk. Westm.) That chafferen as chapmen and chynchen [other MSS. chiden] but þei geten. |
▪ IV. chinch v.
dial. form of chink v.2: see chinse.