hitch

/hɪt͡ʃ/

hitch noun: a sudden pull. Also the clipping of hitchhike.

Image: Smack, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

hitch (plural hitches)

A sudden pull.
Any of various knots used to attach a rope to an object other than another rope.
A fastener or connection point, as for a trailer.
- His truck sported a heavy-duty hitch for his boat.
(informal) A problem, delay or source of difficulty.
- The banquet went off without a hitch
- The service operated according to plan on the Monday morning with only a few hitches.1961 July, “Glasgow emergency - the restoration of Clydeside steam suburban services”, in Trains Illustrated, page 432
A hidden or unfavorable condition or element.
- The deal sounds too good to be true. What's the hitch?
Synonyms:

catch
(slang) A period of time spent in the military.
- She served two hitches in Vietnam.
- U.S. TROOPS FACE LONGER ARMY HITCH; SOLDIERS BOUND FOR IRAQ, ... WILL BE RETAINED2004, June 3, Stephen J. Hedges & Mike Dorning, Chicago Tribune; Orlando Sentinel; page pg. A.1
A large Californian minnow, Lavinia exilicauda.
A hole cut into the wall of a mine on which timbers are rested.
- An upcast fault is when the seam is thrown up; to counteract this a "canch" of top stone must be taken down outbye over from the fault, and a "canch" of bottom stone taken up inbye over from the fault, then level up to the bottom of your "canch" at the foreside of the hitch outbye over until you...1879, William Bailes, Student's Guide to the Principles of Coal & Metal Mining, page 17
- A coal cutter and conveyor is used along the face, and after each cut the hitch had to be crossed at a new point.1897, Great Britain. Mines Department, Mines and Quarries. Reports ... for the Newcastle District (No. 3) (page 32)

Verb

hitch (third-person singular simple present hitches, present participle hitching, simple past and past participle hitched)

(transitive) To pull with a jerk.
- She hitched her jeans up and then tightened her belt.
(transitive) To attach, tie or fasten.
- He hitched the bedroll to his backpack and went camping.
- Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
Synonyms:

affix, join, put together, accouple, assemble, associate, attach, bewed, bind, clasp
(informal) To marry oneself to; especially to get hitched.

Synonyms:

splice, wed, bewed, conjoin, couple, espouse, handfast, join, marry, spouse
(intransitive) To become entangled or caught; to be linked or yoked; to unite; to cling.
- atoms[…]which at length hitched together1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
(intransitive) To move interruptedly or with halts, jerks, or steps; said of something obstructed or impeded.
- Frank’s breath hitched in his throat when he saw the knife being pointed at him.
- To ease themselves […] by hitching into another place.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)
(UK, intransitive) To strike the legs together in going, as horses; to interfere.
- Stolen[…]A brown Gelding[…]all his paces, and hitches a little in his pace.1686, London Gazette

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Hitch

Hitch

A surname transferred from the given name.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Hitch

Hitch

(informal) Alfred Hitchcock

Also used as

hitch is also the clipping of hitchhike.

hitch meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

hitch in Hindi

2. knot: गाँठ gā̃ṭh

hitch in Urdu

ہچ

hitch in Bengali

হিচ

hitch in Telugu

హిచ్, హిట్చ్

More languagesFewer languages

hitch in Malayalam: ഹിച്ച്
hitch in Kannada: ಹಿಚ್, ಹಿಟ್ಚ್
hitch in Odia: ହିଚ୍

Examples of hitch in a sentence

There are several dead laws still on the books regulating where horses may be hitched.
Joe tied his horse to the hitching post before going into the bank.
The truck he'd bought was without a hitch.

All 40 example sentences with hitch

Synonyms of hitch

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of hitch

Forms of hitch

Noun
plural	hitches
Verb
third-person singular present	hitches
present participle	hitching
past participle	hitched
past	hitched

Past tense of hitch: hitched

Plural of hitch: hitches

Origin of hitch

Probably from Middle English hicchen, hytchen, icchen (“to move; to move as with a jerk”), of obscure origin. Lacks cognates in other languages. Compare itch, hike.

From a medieval diminutive of the male give name Richard.

Phrases with hitch

Words that rhyme with hitch

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hitch

What does hitch mean?: Hitch means a sudden pull.
What is hitch in Hindi?: Hitch in Hindi is गाँठ (gā̃ṭh). See Hitch meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is hitch?: Hitch can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hitch?: Hitch is pronounced /hɪt͡ʃ/.
What is the plural of hitch?: The plural of hitch is hitches.

Words near hitch in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: hitch (page history and authors); Hitch (page history and authors); hitch (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hitch (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hitch (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hitch (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hitch (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hitch (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hitch.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hitch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hitch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.