• IPA: /ɪt͡ʃ/

itch (plural itches)

1. A sensation felt on an area of the skin that causes a person or animal to want to scratch.
2. A constant teasing desire or want.

• yuck, yuik, yeuk (all in Scotland)

• French: démangeaison, prurit
• German: Jucken, Juckreiz
• Italian: prurito
• Portuguese: coceira (Brazil), comichão (Portugal), prurido
• Russian: зуд
• Spanish: picazón, escozor, picor, comezón, prurito (medicine)

• French: prurit
• Italian: (idiomatic) voglia matta
• Portuguese: prurido
• Russian: жа́жда
• Spanish: prurito

itch (itches, present participle itching; past and past participle itched)

1. (intransitive) To feel itchy; to feel a need to be scratched.
2. (intransitive) To have a constant, teasing urge; to feel strongly motivated; to want or desire something.
   • c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     Capulet: ... Speak not, reply not, do not answer me; / My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest / That God had lent us but this only child; / But now I see this one is one too much, / And that we have a curse in having her: / Out on her, hilding!

   He started learning to drive and he has been itching for opportunities to practice ever since.
3. (transitive) To cause to feel an itch.
   • 2001, India Knight, My Life on a Plate (page 102)

     My head is suddenly itching me like mad.

4. (transitive, colloquial) To scratch or rub so as to relieve an itch.
   • 2002, M D Huddleston, Missing Paige:

     "What makes you suspect him?" Max asked as he itched his neck.

   • 2002 January 4, "Cyd" (username), Itching, in alt.support.mult-sclerosis, Usenet:

     I have to take both shoes and socks off! If I go bare foot I'm ok! I also get itching on my r/palm of my hand. I itch it so much that it's raw!

   • 2003 November 21, "Jim Patterson" (username), Behavior Therapy for Itchy Clothes?, in alt.support.ocd, Usenet:

     Basically I go through a half hour of trying to figure out of it is an fake OCD itch or a regular itch before I itch it (if I determine it's a "fake" itch, then I try not to itch it).

   • 2003, Ray Emerson, The Riddle of Cthulhu:

     Ulysses thumped his side and itched his back side, then slipped into his car.

   • 2004, Philip Smucker, Al Qaeda's Great Escape: The Military and the Media on Terror's Trail:

     But when we asked more about the famous man whose specter still commanded the heights, the guard just sneered at me, pointed his gun back toward the road with one hand, and itched his chin with the other.

• French: démanger, gratter, picoter
• German: jucken, kratzen, kitzeln
• Italian: prudere
• Portuguese: coçar, comichar, prurir, pruir
• Russian: зуде́ть
• Spanish: picar

• Italian: (idiomatic) morire dalla voglia di, avere una voglia matta di
• Portuguese: querer, desejar
• Russian: жа́ждать