Itching
//ˈɪt͡ʃɪŋ// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A sensation that itches.
"Itchings, hitherto unknown, are felt all over the body, and render my skin sometimes painfully tender, sometimes quite benumbed, as if it were dead."
- 2 an irritating cutaneous sensation that produces a desire to scratch wordnet
Verb
- 1 present participle and gerund of itch form-of, gerund, participle, present
Example
More examples"I was itching for him to finish his talk."
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English ecchinge, ȝitchinge, ʒicchinde, ʒichande (also unassibilated as yckyng), from Old English ġiċċende (“itching”), from Proto-West Germanic *jukkjandi, present participle of *jukkjan (“to itch”), equivalent to itch + -ing.
Etymology 2
From Middle English icchynge, ichynge, ycchenge, yecchyng, ʒicchunge (also unassibilated as ʒykynge), equivalent to itch + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "itching"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.