itch [ich] ExamplesWord Origin See more synonyms for itch on Thesaurus.com verb (used without object)
- to have or feel a peculiar tingling or uneasy irritation of the skin that causes a desire to scratch the part affected: My nose itches.
- to cause such a feeling: This shirt itches.
- Informal. to scratch a part that itches.
- to have a desire to do or get something: to itch after fame.
verb (used with object)
- to cause to have an itch: His wool shirt always itches him.
- Informal. to scratch (a part that itches): to itch a mosquito bite.
- to annoy; vex; irritate: Her remarks itched me.
noun
- the sensation of itching.
- an uneasy or restless desire or longing: an itch for excitement.
- a contagious disease caused by the itch mite, which burrows into the skin (usually preceded by the).
Compare mange, scabies. Origin of itch before 900; (v.) Middle English (y)icchen, Old English gicc(e)an; akin to German jucken, Dutch jeuken; (noun) Middle English (y)icche, Old English gicce, derivative of the v.Related formsan·ti-itch, adjective Related Words for itch yearning, impulse, craving, hankering, ache, yearn, crave, thirst, hanker, crawling, tickle, rawness, irritation, creeping, psoriasis, prickling, itchiness, eroticism, urge, restlessness Examples from the Web for itch Contemporary Examples of itch
“You try to always scratch where the itch is,” Huckabee said about his campaigning and rhetoric in the 2008 primary.
Why This Liberal Hearts Huckabee
Sally Kohn
January 6, 2015
That seems to be the modus operandi as The League moves closer to the seven-year itch.
The MVPs of Sleaze Are Back: FXX’s ‘The League’ Ups the Degenerate Ante
Emily Shire
September 4, 2014
Inside the itch, extreme weather—both flooding and drought—seem to be intensifying.
Eliza Griswold
July 3, 2011
They will always have the itch to be going, whether the going is good or not.
Malcolm Jones
June 5, 2011
LIBRA Your palms may itch, signaling a cash infusion is on the horizon.
Horoscopes for June 5-11, 2011
Starsky + Cox
June 4, 2011
Historical Examples of itch
Wit, lad, is a catching thing, like the itch or the sweating sickness.
Arthur Conan Doyle
But he did not shoot, though one could see how his fingers must itch for the feel of the trigger.
B. M. Bower
I always had an itch for newspaper work, and I went on a New York paper.
Booth Tarkington
There was nothing under heaven their fingers did not itch to change.
Ernest Poole
This is the safest and best application for the itch, and will have no disagreeable smell, if made in the following manner.
Mary Eaton
British Dictionary definitions for itch itch noun
- an irritation or tickling sensation of the skin causing a desire to scratch
- a restless desire
- any skin disorder, such as scabies, characterized by intense itching
verb
- (intr) to feel or produce an irritating or tickling sensation
- (intr) to have a restless desire (to do something)
- not standard to scratch (the skin)
- itching palm a grasping nature; avarice
- have itchy feet to be restless; have a desire to travel
Derived Formsitchy, adjectiveitchiness, nounWord Origin for itch Old English gīccean to itch, of Germanic origin Word Origin and History for itch n.
Old English gicce, from giccan (v.) “to itch” (see itch (v.)). Sense of “restless desire” is first attested 1530s; itching in this sense is from mid-14c.
v.
Old English giccan “to itch,” from West Germanic *jukkjan (cf. Middle Dutch jöken “to itch,” Old High German jucchen, German jucken). Related: Itched; itching.
itch in Medicine itch [ĭch] n.
- An irritating skin sensation causing a desire to scratch.
- Any of various skin disorders, such as scabies, marked by intense irritation and itching.
v.
- To feel, have, or produce an itch.