to retch = würgen

to make sb retch = jdn zum Würgen bringen

... dass ich würgen musste

to retch is more than just würgen; it means "to throw up."

Edit: this is what M-W has to say
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retch
Definition of RETCH
transitive verb
: vomit 1
intransitive verb
: to make an effort to vomit; also : vomit

I think retch means
'make an unsuccessful effort to vomit'

Am I wrong?

To 'retch' does not mean to vomit or throw up. It means to undergo the gagging reflex, such as can be induced by sticking something down your throat, or by various sensory stimuli, as here. If you retch, you don't vomit.

Then maybe AE is different; M-W seems very clear, IMO.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_i...
retch (v.)
1540s, originally "to clear the throat, to cough up phlegm," from Old English hræcan "to cough up, spit" (related to hraca "phlegm"), from Proto-Germanic *khrækijanan (cf. Old High German rahhison "to clear one's throat"), of imitative origin (cf. Lithuanian kregeti "to grunt"). Meaning "to make efforts to vomit" is from 1850; sense of "to vomit" is first attested 1888. Related: Retched; retching.

my bolding

OED carries both meanings with examples.

2.



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a.trans. To expel from the stomach or oesophagus by vomiting. Freq. with up and out.


1538 [see sense 1b].
1775 J. Ash New & Compl. Dict. Eng. Lang., Retch (v.t. from the Sax. hrwcan), to force up from the stomach.

1854 W. W. Hall Bronchitis & Kindred Dis. (ed. 8) 262 Food is sometimes retched up or spit up.

1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 13 Oct. 2/2 Some not able to carry their load of beer further than the gutter into which they retch the foul-smelling, poisonous liquid.

1911 tr. A. Pick & A. Hecht Clin. Symptomatology 278 Diseases of the esophagus in which..the food is..retched up from the esophagus before it has reached the stomach.

1914 W. Douglas Newton War 131 My God. I never smelt anything so horrible. Made me retch my heart up.

1962 S. Raven Close of Play III. xv. 190 He led off across the field, Hugo stumbling at his side and retching out little bursts of vomit.

1987 B. A. Powe Ice Eatersii. xii. 157 She knelt at the toilet..while she retched driblets of green bile.

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b.intr. To make an involuntary effort to vomit; to strain while making the sound or action of vomiting but without expelling anything from the stomach or oesophagus. Also occas.: to expel matter by vomiting; to throw up.



1538 T. Elyot Dict., Screator, he that retcheth or spitteth.

1708 Philos. Trans. 1706–07 (Royal Soc.) 25 2206 They perceive a kind of Convulsion in their Head, and vomit or retch four or five times.

1760 tr. S. A. D. Tissot Ess. Bilious Fevers 48 Some time after the second draught, there was an inclination to retch, which was followed by vomiting.

1850 P. Crook War of Hats 37 It made me almost retch To hear the tedious dullard prate and preach.

1861 G. F. Berkeley Eng. Sportsman xi. 172 A fellow..who was intermittingly prostrated by fever and ague, and lying..on the ground, retching for twelve hours out of the twenty-four.

1872 C. Darwin Emotions xi. 260 The tendency to retch from a fetid odour is immediately strengthened in a curious manner by some degree of habit.

1920 I. S. Cobb From Place to Place vi. 284 The man with the gripes who retched was still retching as he heaved himself up over the parapet.

1976 C. Cussler Raise Titanic! (1977) i. ii. 19 A spasm of nausea rushed over him and he retched uncontrollably.

2000 P. Pullman Amber Spyglass (2001) xiii. 171 The first thing Will did was to hold his stomach and retch, heaving and heaving with a mortal horror.


http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/164208?rskey=5R...

Re #6: OED carries both meanings with examples. True, but if one looks more closely at the OED entry (or at the M-W entry for that matter) it's apparent that "to retch" normally means "to vomit" only when used transitively, i.e. you have to retch something, e.g. "driblets of green bile" to use a quotation from the OED. Used intransitively, as in the OP, the usual meaning of "to retch" is to make an unsuccessful effort to vomit, make the sound of vomiting without actually throwing up, undergo the gagging reflex and so on, but not to actually vomit.

if one looks more closely at the OED entry (or at the M-W entry for that matter) it's apparent that "to retch" normally means "to vomit" only when used transitively (#7)

Wretch that I am, should've noticed that. ;-(

retch (rch)
v. retched, retch·ing, retch·es
v.intr.
To try to vomit.
v.tr.
To vomit.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

v.intr. + v.tr.

As ##4 and 7 have pointed out, "to retch" does not normally mean "sich erbrechen."

It can mean that, but it's not the normal use of the word. (See #7, second part, beginning at "Also occas.")

In the use of the word in the OP it is intended to mean "sich erbrechen." But this is more of an exception than the rule.

retch, wretch - Retch is the verb to vomit or gag;
See also related terms for vomit.

Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.

...to vomit OR gag;

For heavens' sake stop dumbing down LEO and re-read in particular #7.

Even reading #9 is enough as long as you know what transitive and intransitive mean :-)

#11: Farlex Trivia Dictionary

As an authority, is that on a par with, say, the OED or Merriam-Webster?