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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

cwtch en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

  • /kʊtʃ/ (UK)

Etymology

From Welsh cwtsh (“hug, cuddle; little corner, recess”), from Middle English couche. Doublet of couch.

Meanings

  1. (Wales) A cubbyhole or similar hiding place.
    • In front of the pavement again stretched a flat patch of rusty ground, a sort of little platform in the side of the hill where the sagging drying-lines stood and a chickens' cwtch built of orange-boxes. 1944, Glyn Jones, “An Afternoon at Ewa Shad's”, in The Water-Music and Other Stories:
    • "In better times when the coalman called at our home in William Street he heaved the sacks through the front door and put their contents into the ‘cwtch’ under the stairs, a messy business indeed." 2007 August 20, Mike Buckingham, Western Telegraph:
  2. (Wales) A hug or cuddle.
    • I am expecting the big man to come round the corner and give me a ‘cwtch’ as he has done beside countless rugby fields. 2007 November 18, Ieuan Evans, The Telegraph:
    • I don’t mind them coming in for a quick cwtch before trudging back off to their own rooms, as long as no conversation is required and it is literally just a five-minute cuddle. 2011 February 17, Rachel Mainwaring, South Wales Echo:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
cwtsh alternative lexicographic
cwtches Number=Plur lexicographic

Translations (3)

cy cwtsh (cubbyhole or similar place) · cy cwtsh (cuddle) · sv kram (cuddle)

cwtch en · VERB · etymology 2

Pronunciation

  • /kʊtʃ/ (UK)

Etymology

From Welsh cwtsio, from cwtsh + -o (suffix forming verbnouns).

Meanings

  1. (Wales) To hug, cuddle, embrace, or comfort.
  2. (Wales) To crouch or lie (down).
    • A family are about to have a meal round the kitchen table, so the dog is told to go and “cwtch” in the corner, out of harm’s way. 2014, Alan Meats, “Toffee Dabs and Doughboys”, in Valley Boy Goes West: Memoirs of a Parish Priest, Guildford, Surrey: Grosvenor House Publishing Limited, →ISBN, pages 1–2:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
cwtched Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
cwtched Tense=Past lexicographic
cwtches Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
cwtching Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
cwtsh alternative lexicographic

Synonyms

halse · comply · hold · complect · embrace · hug · clip · squeeze · oxter · umbeclap · infold · cwtch · press · accoll · glomp · enfold · beclip · strain · amplect · coll · fall on someone's neck

Translations (2)

cy cwtsio (to crouch) · cy cwtsio (to cuddle)