ITCH • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Itch

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/ɪtʃ/ Listen

noun

Itch n.

1.

(Med.) An eruption of small, isolated, acuminated vesicles, produced by the entrance of a parasitic mite (the Sarcoptes scabei), and attended with itching. It is transmissible by contact.

2.

Any itching eruption.

3.

A sensation in the skin occasioned (or resembling that occasioned) by the itch eruption; called also scabies, psora, etc.

4.

A constant irritating desire. "An itch of being thought a divine king."

Baker's itch. See under Baker.

Barber's itch, sycosis.

Bricklayer's itch, an eczema of the hands attended with much itching, occurring among bricklayers.

Grocer's itch, an itching eruption, being a variety of eczema, produced by the sugar mite (Tyrogluphus sacchari).

Itch insect (Zool.), a small parasitic mite (Sarcoptes scabei) which burrows and breeds beneath the human skin, thus causing the disease known as the itch.

Itch mite. (Zool.) Same as Itch insect, above. Also, other similar mites affecting the lower animals, as the horse and ox.

Sugar baker's itch, a variety of eczema, due to the action of sugar upon the skin.

Washerwoman's itch, eczema of the hands and arms, occurring among washerwomen.

verb

Itch v. i. (past & past part. itched; pres. part. itching)

1.

To have an uneasy sensation in the skin, which inclines the person to scratch the part affected. "My mouth hath itched all this long day."

2.

To have a constant desire or teasing uneasiness; to long for; as, itching ears. "An itching palm."

See images of 'Itch'

Etymology of 'Itch'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Itch" Quotes from Famous Books

... Goodman Crop of Compton Farm, wants nothing but a plum and a gold chain to qualify him for the government of the City. My kinsman's stable-boy was a gibing companion that would always have his jest. He would often put cow-itch in the maids' beds, pull stools from under folks, and lay a coal upon their shoes when they were asleep. He was at last turned off for some notable piece of roguery, and when I came away, was loitering among the ale-houses. Bless me, thought I, what a prodigious wit would this have been ...

— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IX; • Jonathan Swift

... seems to be a greater degree of titillation, and to be owing to the stimulus of some acrid material, as the matter of the itch; or of the herpes on the scrotum, and about the anus; or from those universal eruptions, which attend some elderly people, who have drank much vinous spirit. It occurs also, when inflammations are declining, ...

— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... replied, "A conscience dark, either with its own or with another's shame, will indeed feel thy speech as harsh; but nevertheless, all falsehood laid aside, make thy whole vision manifest, and let the scratching be even where the itch is; for if at the first taste thy voice shall be molestful, afterwards, when it shall be digested, it will leave vital nourishment. This cry of thine shall do as the wind, which heaviest strikes the loftiest summits; and that will be no little argument of honor. Therefore to thee have ...

— The Divine Comedy, Volume 3, Paradise [Paradiso] • Dante Alighieri

... down with their ears to the ground to hear the farther. But all was still as the desert only can be, and the great battle which was expected had certainly not yet begun. But expectation of a fight excites men, and if at a distance they itch to be in it, this feeling even actuating men who fail to show any particular ...

— For Fortune and Glory - A Story of the Soudan War • Lewis Hough

... at almost every page with indignation that his weaknesses and his failings should be disclosed to public view.... Johnson, after the luster he had reflected on the name of Thrale ... was to have his memory tortured and abused by her detested itch for scribbling. More injury, we will venture to affirm, has been done to the fame of Johnson by this Lady and her late biographical helpmate, than his most avowed enemies have been able to effect: and if his character ...

— A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II (of II) • Augustus de Morgan

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