The Collaborative International Dictionary
Retch \Retch\ (r[e^]ch or r[=e]ch; 277), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Retched (r[e^]cht); p. pr. & vb. n. Retching.] [AS. hr[ae]can to clear the throat, hawk, fr. hraca throat; akin to G. rachen, and perhaps to E. rack neck.] To make an effort to vomit; to strain, as in vomiting.
Beloved Julia, hear me still beseeching!
(Here he grew inarticulate with retching.)
--Byron.
Wiktionary
n. The act of one who retches. vb. (present participle of retch English)
Wikipedia
Retching (also known as dry heaving) is the reverse movement ( peristalsis) of the stomach and esophagus without vomiting. It can be caused by bad smell or choking, or by withdrawal from some medications after vomiting stops. Retching can also occur as a result of an emotional response or from stress, which produces the same physical reaction. The function is thought to be mixing gastric contents with intestinal refluxate in order to buffer the former and give it momentum in preparation of vomiting. Treatments include medication and correction of the fluid and electrolyte balance.
Usage examples of "retching".
Knobber made a great play of retching deep in his throat, then gobbed copiously onto the tabletop.
She leaned over the gunwale again, catching her bleached and knotted braids in one hand and retching so horribly that anyone not privy to the situation might be forgiven for believing that a sheep was being slowly and grotesquely strangled.
The sound of retching reached a crescendo, became more productive, then ceased abruptly.
He leaned heavily against the binnacle to steady himself, retching a little.
He spat to clear the foul taste away, clutching the trembling earth, retching again and again.
He held onto them and fought to his feet, then swayed and fell, coughing and retching, the blood still oozing from his ears.
People were running helter-skelter, retching, vomiting and defecating uncontrollably.
Paulos himself, nude, sobbing, and glistening with the sweat of agony, lay curled in a knot, clutching his groin and retching onto the tiles.
What coughing and gagging, what outrageous retching and hawking, what bursts and punctures of steam and gas, what eructations, what disgorgementsand the leaping plumes and flashes and pulsing brain-scans the flames made, until they relaxed and quieted, and began to breathe again.
Although she tried hard to make her visitors happy, just as today I do my best to seem pleased when visitors come, she could not prevent a periodic retching from seizing hold of her slowly wasting body, though there was nothing more to come out of it except, at last, on the fourth day of that strenuous dying, the bit of breath which each of us must give up if he is to be honored with a death certificate.
We all sighed with relief when there was nothing more within her to provoke that retching which so marred her beauty.
From within the brush pitiful retching sounds alternated with less pleasant ones.
The otter gently lowered the still softly retching koala to the ground, trying to fight off the cold chills that were coursing through his own body.
Somewhere in the room a scream tailed off into a choking, retching sound.
But the fact is, that the stomach of poor Sancho was of necessity not so delicate as that of his master, and so, before vomiting, he was seized with such gripings and retchings, and such sweats and faintness, that verily and truly be believed his last hour had come, and finding himself so racked and tormented he cursed the balsam and the thief that had given it to him.