chinch

[ chinch ]

/ tʃɪntʃ /

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noun

(loosely) a bedbug.

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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