linch

English

Alternative forms

• lynch

Etymology

From Middle English linche, link, from Old English hlinc (“a hill”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɪnʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɪnʃ

Noun

linch (plural linches)

1. A ledge, a terrace; a right-angled projection; a lynchet.
   • 1910, An introduction to the study of local history and antiquities, page 387:

     Within ten years linches were formed; rain washed down the mould, some accident arrested it at a certain line, and a terrace was the result. Certainly the tendency is for the upper part of such a field to be denuded of mould, to be worked "to the bone," i.e. to the bare chalk or stone. But the first makers of linches had no choice. They had to farm on slopes or not at all, […]

   • 2013, Peter James, Nick Thorpe, Ancient Mysteries, →ISBN, page 289:

     Indeed, a map of 1844 marks some of the lower terraces on the southern and eastern flanks of the hill as "Tor Linches," a linch or lynchet being a terrace of land wide enough to plot. (Some linches were deliberately Fashioned; others came about as the land flattened into platforms through being worked.)

2. (rare, regional or obsolete) An acclivity; a small hill or hillock.
   • 15th century, anonymous, Mum and the Sothsegger (15th c.)

     I lay down on a linch to lithe my bones.

Derived terms

• linchy

Related terms

• lince
• lynchet

References

• “linch”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “link, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• Wright, Joseph (1902) The English Dialect Dictionary‎^[1], volume 3, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 610