Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use retch in a sentence

12 example sentences · verb, noun

Retch means to make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as if to vomit; to gag or nearly vomit. Example: “This foul food is making me retch.”

Examples of retch by meaning

verbTo vomit; to make or experience a successful effort to vomit.

  • Retching the contents from his lungs.2020 August 11, Tony Bertauski, Maze: The Essence of Sunny Grimm, Tony Bertauski

More sentences with retch

  • This foul food is making me retch.From the entry foul
  • His skin pimpled with horror, his feet felt like freight, he wanted to retch.2014, Philip Wylie, Tomorrow!, Open Road Media, →ISBN. From the entry bloodscape
  • I could have walked away from myself that nightful day: itching, retching, twitching; pain.2000, Máirín Diamond, The testimony of the bones, page 75. From the entry nightful
  • She almost retched as the taste came back to her mouth.1954, Ian Fleming, “Allumeuse”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 109. From the entry voodoo
  • Sar steeled himself against the urge to retch.2015 November, Tony Peak, Inherit the Stars, Roc Books, →ISBN, page 266. From the entry pacifier gag
  • Her breath-holding increased in duration to almost a minute; her expirations became complicated by stridor, forced retching, and forced phonations ('Oouuggh!').1973, Oliver Sacks, Awakenings, New York: Vintage, published 1999, page 50. From the entry stridor
  • Over the subsequent 12 to 18 hours, Jenny became anxious after she was fed canned food and began to retch and hypersalivate.2013, Jane E. Sykes, Canine and Feline Infectious Diseases, →ISBN, page 529. From the entry hypersalivate
  • I thought I might retch again.2011, May-lee Chai, Dragon Chica, page 217. From the entry sop up
  • Some retchers are extremely apprehensive as, in addition to their normal fears, they anticipate that they will retch or be sick and 'disgrace' themselves.1988, Jack Edgar Manning, General Dental Practice: A Handbook of Primary Dental Care, page 4-1. From the entry retcher
  • I was going to let him have one in the tidgy triangle below the throat like Suze taught me, but everything stopped at the sound of Paulie retching.2008, Jim Cartwright, Supermarket supermodel. From the entry tidgy
  • Whether or not this superformidable enemy, as powerful and malicious as Satan Himself, will be a clone of the Chief (W)retch or The Original, I do not know.1989, Robin Wayne Bailey, The Lake of Fire, Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 10. From the entry superformidable

Meaning of retch

  1. verb To make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as if to vomit; to gag or nearly vomit.
  2. verb To vomit; to make or experience a successful effort to vomit.
  3. noun An unsuccessful effort to vomit.

Full definition of retch

Questions about retch in a sentence

How do you use retch in a sentence?
Retch is used as a verb and noun. For example: “This foul food is making me retch.”
What is a short sentence with retch?
“I thought I might retch again.”
What does retch mean?
Retch means to make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as if to vomit; to gag or nearly vomit.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: retch (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use retch in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/retch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.