chinch

[ chinch ]

/ tʃɪntʃ /

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noun

(loosely) a bedbug.

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

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Origin of chinch

1615–25; <Spanish chinche<Latin cīmic- (stem of cīmex) bug

Words nearby chinch

chin ball, chinbeak, chinbone, chin cactus, chincapin, chinch, chinch bug, chincherinchee, chinchilla, chin-chin, Chin-Chou

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use chinch in a sentence

Found them so popular that he took on chinch bugs at a nickel, and fairly coined money.
Letters from a Self-Made Merchant to His Son|George Horace Lorimer
Proletarians for the most part wish, chinch-bug fashion, to crawl into the Elysian fields now occupied by the hated capitalists.
The Behavior of Crowds|Everett Dean Martin
Such well-known insects as the Bed-bug and Chinch-bug belong here.
Directions for Collecting and Preserving Insects|C. V. Riley
The chinch bug alone has demonstrated his power to devastate the wheat fields.
Book of Monsters|David Fairchild and Marian Hubbard (Bell) Fairchild

For two years the crop had been almost wholly destroyed by chinch bugs.
A Son of the Middle Border|Hamlin Garland

British Dictionary definitions for chinch

chinch

/ (tʃɪntʃ) /

noun

Southern US another name for a bedbug

Word Origin for chinch

C17: from Spanish chinche, from Latin cīmex bug

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012