Word.ws English Dictionary

ouche

UK/aʊtʃ/

ouche noun: a brooch or clasp for fastening a piece of clothing together, especially when set with jewels or valuable.

Noun

ouche (plural ouches)

  1. (historical, poetic) A brooch or clasp for fastening a piece of clothing together, especially when set with jewels or valuable.
    • My huſbonde had a legende of his lyfe^([sic – meaning wyfe?]) / Eriphilem that for an ouche of golde / Hath preuely vnto the grekes tolde / Where that hir huſbonde hyd him in a place / For which he had at Thebes ſory grace.[1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wyfe of Bathes Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales (in Middle English), [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne]...
    • [A]nd the hors trapped in the ſame wyſe doune to the helys wyth many owchys y ſette with ſtones and perlys in gold to the nombre of a thowſand […][1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum xiv”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XX, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC, leaf 411, verso; republished as H[einrich]...

Forms of ouche

pluralouches
alternative formnouch
alternative formooch
alternative formouch
alternative formowch

Origin of ouche

From Middle English ouche, from nouche, which in phrases like a nouche was re-analyzed as an ouche (rebracketing). From Anglo-Norman nusche and Old French nusche (with metanalysis), from a Germanic source; compare German Nusche, Proto-Germanic *hnuts.

Words that rhyme with ouche

Questions about ouche

What does ouche mean?
Ouche means a brooch or clasp for fastening a piece of clothing together, especially when set with jewels or valuable.
What part of speech is ouche?
Ouche is a noun.
How do you pronounce ouche?
Ouche is pronounced /aʊtʃ/ (UK).
What is the plural of ouche?
The plural of ouche is ouches.

Words near ouche in the dictionary

  1. oubliettes
  2. ouboet
  3. ouboets
  4. OUCA
  5. ouch
  6. ouche
  7. ouched
  8. ouches
  9. Ouchi
  10. ouchie
  11. ouchies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ouche (page history and authors). 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.

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