itchy
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɪt͡ʃi/
rhymes: -ɪtʃi
Forms: form: itchier
form: itchiest
Etymology: From Middle English *yicchy, *ȝicchi, from Old English ġiċċiġ (“itchy”), equivalent to itch + -y. Cognate with Scots yeukie (“itchy”), West Frisian jokkerich (“itchy”), Dutch jeukachtig and jeukerig (“itchy”).
Senses: examples: text: an itchy rash
text: Excess, the scrophulous and itchy plague / That seizes first the opulent
ref: 1785, William Cowper, “Book IV. The Winter Evening.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 167:
text: Her heart kicked and an itchy burning in her throat made her swallow all her saliva away.
ref: 1987, Toni Morrison, Beloved, New York: Knopf, Part 3, p. 243:
synonyms: pruritic
glosses: Characterized by itching. (of a condition)
examples: text: My nose always gets itchy the moment I put on my face mask.
text: Q. What do you mean by a natural, but sickly delight?
A. I mean such a delight as Itchie people have to scratch, green-sickness Garles to eat coles and chalk, and those in a burning Fever, to drink cold drink.
ref: 1659, Lyon Freeman, The Common-wealths Catechism, London: John Clowes, pages 15–16:
text: I heard the trumpet of its famous mosquito, but did not feel its attacks; still the itchy hillocks on my hands for some days afterwards reported the venom of the insect.
ref: 1869, John Tyndall, “Odds and Ends of Alpine Life”, in Littel’s Living Age, Series 4, Vol. 13, No. 1303, p. 471:
text: […] the hot, dusty air swept in through the open windows and made Adam’s eyes itchy and teary.
ref: 2009, Tash Aw, chapter 34, in Map of the Invisible World, New York: Spiegel & Grau, published 2010, page 314:
glosses: Feeling an itching sensation; feeling a need to be scratched. (of a person, animal or body part)
examples: text: He refuses to wear the new sweater; he says it’s itchy.
text: the itchy sound, the brisk and scratchy sound, of combing hairs out of a stiff brush
ref: 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter I, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, page 4:
text: It was one room crowded with attic furniture, a sofa and fat chairs upholstered in that itchy, particular red velvet that one associates with hot days on a train.
ref: 1958, Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Penguin, published 1961, page 9:
text: I remember only the ugly black stockings, woolly and very itchy, and the little red tam I had to wear and how much I hated it.
ref: 1973, Maria Campbell, chapter 5, in Halfbreed,, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, page 44:
synonyms: scratchy
glosses: Causing an itching sensation.
examples: text: Casy said softly, “All of ’em’s itchy. Them cops been sayin’ how they’re gonna beat the hell outa us an’ run us outa the county. […]”
ref: 1939, John Steinbeck, chapter 26, in The Grapes of Wrath, New York: Viking, published 1958, page 526:
text: 1966, Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Chapter 16, in Worlds of If, Volume 16, No. 1, Issue 98, January, 1966, p. 77,
[…] I got itchy wondering whether I could go inside Complex without being nabbed.
text: At first I’d feel lonely, afraid, itchy, very afraid to go on with my story, afraid it wasn’t any good, afraid it was terrific and I was about to spoil it, afraid it was better than I understood and I would never know how to equal it again […]
ref: 1988, Edmund White, chapter 4, in The Beautiful Room Is Empty, London: Pan Books, page 87:
text: Chasing after the stories about those girls in the ward made me itchy and restless.
ref: 2003, Siri Hustvedt, What I Loved, London: Hodder & Stoughton, Part 1, p. 89:
synonyms: anxious
jittery
jumpy
nervous
on edge
glosses: In a state of agitation; easily alarmed.
examples: text: Who simply stares and listens / Tongue-tied, while eye nor glistens / Nor brow grows hot and twitchy, / Nor mouth, for a combat itchy, / Quivers with some convincing / Reply
ref: 1876, Robert Browning, Pacchiarotto, and How He Worked in Distemper, Boston: James R. Osgood, published 1877, page 17:
text: “So I went over to see Miss Huntress and after a lot of finagling around with this itchy-handed house dick I got to see her and we had a chat […]”
ref: 1939, Raymond Chandler, chapter 7, in Trouble Is My Business, Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing:
text: By now, Pearl would have been out the door and halfway down the steps, reaching for the three of them with those eager, itchy fingers of hers.
ref: 1982, Anne Tyler, chapter 10, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, New York: Knopf, published 1989, page 282:
text: She’d forgotten about the box […]. Not until Palma was home did she start getting itchy to open it before Christmas, but in the end she put it away unopened.
ref: 2014, Ana Castillo, Give It to Me, New York: Feminist Press, Part 1, Chapter 14, p. 60:
synonyms: itching
glosses: Having a constant, teasing desire (for something, to do something); impatiently eager.
examples: text: They are curious with the itchy curiosity of their explorative time of life, and they have no proper guidance.
ref: 1923, Samuel Hopkins Adams, chapter 12, in Flaming Youth, New York: Boni and Liveright, page 129:
text: A bachelor at sixty-eight and an uneasy drinker, Holcomb was seized with an itchy, reminiscent lust whenever he drank too much […]
ref: 1951, William Styron, chapter 6, in Lie Down in Darkness, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, pages 309–310:
text: With peace gone he was left with plain old boredom, and not the clean kind. But the itchy, restless kind that begged to be filled.
ref: 2016, Joe Okonkwo, chapter 41, in Jazz Moon, New York: Kensington:
glosses: Causing a constant, teasing desire for something.
examples: text: Car[dochia]. That slave in obscene language courted me, / Drew reals out, and would have bought my body, / Diego, from thee. / Die[go]. Is he so itchy? I'll cure him.
ref: c. 1623 (date written; published 1653), Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, John Ford, “The Spanish Gipsy”, in A[rthur] H[enry] Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton […] (The English Dramatists), volume VI, London: John C. Nimmo […], published 1885, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 193:
text: what’s all the delight, / That seemes so pleasing to the itchie whorer?
ref: 1640, Nathanael Richards, Messallina, London: Daniel Frere, act I, scene 1:
synonyms: lascivious
lecherous
lustful
glosses: Feeling or showing a high level of sexual interest.
Derived terms: itchies
itchily
itchiness
itchy feet
itchy palm
itchy trigger finger