titch

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɪt͡ʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪtʃ

Etymology 1

From the stage name Little Tich; see tich. Attested since the 1880s.

Noun

titch (plural titches)

1. (British, colloquial) A very small person; a small child.

   I ain't afraid of a titch like you.

   • 1995, Philip Mitchell, One Moonlit Night, translation of Un Nos Ola Leuad by Caradog Prichard, page 106:

     We called him Titch because he was a tiny little man, and he had a mop of black hair.

Derived terms

• titchy

See also

• tich

Etymology 2

From Middle English techen, tüchen, variant or dialectal forms of Middle English touchen (“to touch”).

Noun

titch (plural titches)

1. (colloquial) A small amount of something.

   I'll have just a titch more cake.

   • 1988, Howard Lewis Russell, Rush to Nowhere‎^[1], page 148:

     “...and just a titch of my special pepper sauce over these turnip greens, everybody loves turnip greens.”

Verb

titch (third-person singular simple present titches, present participle titching, simple past and past participle titched)

1. Pronunciation spelling of touch.
   • 1865, Nathan Hogg, Poetical Letters‎^[2], page 63:

     Vur Bob eszul wis awful titch'd
     An went jist like a hoss a witch'd.

   • 1894, Sabine Baring-Gould, Kitty Alone‎^[3], page 120:

     There was some sort of affray between you and Flood. The constables separated you. What led to this?
     […] I titched Noah and Noah titched me and my hat falled off.

Etymology 3

Variant or colloquial pronunciation of teach.

Verb

titch (third-person singular simple present titches, present participle titching, simple past and past participle titched)

1. Pronunciation spelling of teach.
   • 1888, George Washington Cable, Bonaventure‎^[4], page 114:

     “yass, dass all right: but how we know you titch English? Nobody can’t tell you titchin’ him right or no.”

Scots

Etymology

From Old Scots tuich or twych, from Old French tochier.

Verb

titch (third-person singular simple present titches, present participle titchin, simple past titched, past participle titched)

1. Archaic spelling of touch.
   • 1845, T. Denham, Poems and Snatches of Prose‎^[5], page 145:

     Wud ye titch the bell? Gin I binna dry, an my tongue a’ san’paper, I’m a leear.

     Would you touch the bell? If it is not the case that I am dry, my tongue like sandpaper, then I’m a liar.

   • 1983, William Lorimer, transl., The New Testament in Scots, Edinburgh: Canongate, published 2001, →ISBN, →OCLC, Luke 8:43-44, page 119:

     Jesus wis gaein alang wi the thrang ’maist birzin the breith out o him, wan a wuman at hed haen a rin a bluid for twal year, at nae-ane docht redd her o, cam up ahent him an titched the rund o his coat; an immedentlie the rin o bluid devauled.

     Jesus was among the throng, which nearly pushed the breath from him, when a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years, such that no one could heal her, came before him and touched the edge of his cloak; and immediately the bleeding stopped.

Noun

titch (plural titches)

1. Archaic spelling of touch.
   • 1895, Ian Maclaren, A Doctor of the Old School, page 175:

     He hed juist ae faut, tae ma thinkin’, for a’ never jidged the waur o’ him for his titch of rochness—guid trees hae gnarled bark—but he thotched ower little o’ himsel’.

     He had but one fault to my mind, for I never judged him badly for a touch of roughness—good trees have coarse bark—but he thought too little of himself.

References

• “touch” in Dictionary of the Scots Language, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh, retrieved 12 June 2018.

Yola

Alternative forms

• thick, tick

Etymology

From Middle English tiche, tik-, from Old English tiċċen, from Proto-West Germanic *tikkīn.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɪt͡ʃ/, /tɪk/

Noun

titch

1. kid

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 72