v. Obs. exc. dial. Forms: α. 1 cweccan, (cu-), 3 quecchen, queche, 6 queech, queatche, 6–7 que(t)ch; β. (? 3 cwich, quic), 5 qvycch-, qvyhch-, qvytchyn, quycche, 6 quytch(e, quyche, quich, 6–7 quitch, 9 dial. quitchy; γ. 6 (9 dial.) quatch. Pa. t. 1 cwæhte, 1, 3 cwehte, 3 quehte, qu-, cuahte, 4 quei(ȝ)te, quaȝte; also 6 quitched, 6–7 quetched, 7 quatched, quitcht. [OE. cwęccan:—*cwacjan, causative from the root *cwac-: see QUAKE, and cf. OS. quekilik glossing L. versatilem or vibrabilem (gladium). See also AQUETCH.]
† 1. trans. To shake; to brandish; to drive, chase. Obs. (OE. and early ME.)
c. 825. Vesp. Psalter vii. 13. Nemne ʓe sien ʓecerde, sweord his [he] cweceð.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxvii. 39. Þa weʓferenden … cwehton [v.r. cwæhton] heora heafod.
c. 1205. Lay., 23907. Heo quehten [c. 1275 cwehten] heore scaftes. Ibid., 31425. Hiȝendliche he heom quehte ouer þere Humbre.
† 2. intr. Of things: To shake, tremble. Obs.
c. 1205. Lay., 20141. Þa eorðe aȝæn quehte [c. 1275 cwehte]. Ibid., 26919. Quahten on hafden helmes heȝen.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 607. So sterne strokes þay arauȝte … Þat al þe erthe þer-of quaȝte a myle & more on lenghþe.
† 3. intr. To stir or move from one place to another; to go, run, hasten. Obs.
c. 1205. Lay., 826. Ne lete ȝe nenne quick quecchen to holte [c. 1275 scapie to felde]. Ibid., 7271. Þa heo weoren ouer-cumen þæ quahten [c. 1275 wenden] heo wide.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 4344. Þat werwolf … queite toward þe quene.
4. intr. Of persons (or animals): a. To move the body or any part of it; to stir; in later use esp. to shrink, wince, twitch (with pain), and usually in negative clauses. Obs. exc. dial.
The phr. cwich ne cweð in Leg. St. Kath. 1261, quic ne queð in Ancr. R. 122 (two MSS.), app. belongs here, meaning ‘stirred nor spoke,’ though the form is difficult to account for.
c. 1205. Lay., 25844. Þa fond he þer ane quene quecchen mid hafde.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 9051 (Kölbing). Þe stede he smot, þat it queiȝte.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 421/1. Qvycchyn, or mevyn.
1530. Palsgr., 677/2. I quytche, I styrre or move with my bodye.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1676), 587. He … never stirred hand nor foot, nor quitched when the fire took him.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. ix. 33. With a strong yron chaine and coller bound, That once he could not move, nor quich at all.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIX. i. 357. Simonides … endured the flames, and never quetched [L. immobilis].
1636. Featly, Clavis Myst., iii. 33. He who suffereth all this, quatcheth not, stirreth not.
a. 1664. Frank, Sermons (1672), 147. To … look up stedfastly still, not quich aside.
1685. Cotton, trans. Montaigne, I. 253. I have seen men … that would neither cry out, wince nor quitch, for a good swinging beating.
1886. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Quitchy, to twitch; to make sudden, involuntary movements.
b. intr. To utter a sound. (Usually in negative clauses.) Also with against, at. Obs. exc. dial.
1530. Palsgr., 601. She layde upon him lyke a mantle sacke and the poore boye durste nat ones quytche [F. nosa pas tynter].
1531. Tindale, Exp. 1 John (1538), 23 b. Thys doth Paule … so confirme, that all the worlde can not quytch against it.
1657. W. Morice, Coena quasi Κοινὴ, Def. xvi. 256. To snatch their mouths full of earth, that they might not be heard to quetch or groan.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 159. I will speak alwayes with so Magisterial a confidence, that no modest man … shall so much as quetch at me.
1847–78. Halliwell, Quatch, to betray, tell…. Oxf.
1888. Berksh. Gloss., [? Not to] Quatch, to keep absolute silence as regards a certain subject.
† c. Freq. in phr. one dare (or durst) not quetch, implying fear or absolute submission. Also const. against, at. Obs.
13[?]. K. Alis., 4747. Dar no man agein hym queche.
1496. Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), IX. viii. 358/1. Be he so solempne & so myghty, that no man dare quycche ayenst hym.
1528. in Furnivall’s Ballads from MSS., I. 359. Thow knowyste how … mortimer, in þis lande dyd Rule & Rayne, For whom no man durste quyche.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., V. (1593), 124. The seelie lamb that dares not stirre nor quetch, when he heares the howling of the woolfe.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 975/1. They durst not queech in his presence, but were like a sort of timorous cattell.
1638. Featly, Strict. Lyndom., I. 110. A most learned worke, against which never a Papist yet durst quatch.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xix. 67. Which put them in such a fear as they durst not so much as quetch.
Hence † Quetching, quitching vbl. sb. Obs.
1676. H. More, Rem. Disc. Hale, 94. The quitching of the skin.
