Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as quitch-grass.
  • To shake; stir; move.
  • To stir; move.
  • To flinch; shrink.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) Same as quitch grass.
  • noun Figuratively: A vice; a taint; an evil.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A species of grass, often considered as a weed.
  • verb transitive, obsolete To shake; stir; move.
  • verb intransitive, obsolete To stir; move.
  • verb intransitive To flinch; shrink.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English cwice, from Middle Low German kweke. Cognate with German Quecke, Dutch kweek.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English quicchen, quytchen, quecchen, from Old English cweċċan ("to shake, swing, move, vibrate, shake off, give up"), from Proto-Germanic *kwakjanan (“to shake, swing”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷog- (“to shake, swing”). Related to Old English cwacian ("to quake"). More at quake.

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Examples

Comments

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  • From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport

    January 19, 2010