letch

English

Alternative forms

• lech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛt͡ʃ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtʃ

Etymology 1

See lech, lecher.

Noun

letch (plural letches)

1. (archaic) Strong desire; passion.
   • 1830, Thomas De Quincey, Life of Richard Bentley (review)

     Some people have a letch for unmasking impostors, or for avenging the wrongs of others.

2. (informal) A lecher.

Verb

letch (third-person singular simple present letches, present participle letching, simple past and past participle letched)

1. Alternative form of lech (“to behave lecherously”).

Derived terms

• letchy

Etymology 2

From Middle English leche, for example Sandy's Letch located east of Annitsford in North Tyneside.

Noun

letch (plural letches)

1. A stream or pool in boggy land.

   The Letch near Killingworth Village flows in two branches: the Longbenton Letch and the Forest Hall Letch.

Etymology 3

Noun

letch (plural letches)

1. Alternative form of leach.

Verb

letch (third-person singular simple present letches, present participle letching, simple past and past participle letched)

1. Alternative form of leach.

References

• “letch”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English leche (“an infusion”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɛt͡ʃ/

Noun

letch

1. small beer
   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY:

     Ty o' letch.

     A drink of small beer.

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 53