Literary notes about Retching (AI summary)
In literature, retching is often portrayed as a raw, physical manifestation of intense distress and visceral discomfort. Authors employ the term to evoke the image of a character overcome by nausea—whether due to emotional turmoil, physical poisoning, or the sheer force of overwhelming sickness—as seen when retching intensifies a moment of despair ([1], [2], [3]). In some narratives, medical or clinical descriptions lean on retching to underscore the severity of an ailment or injury, emphasizing involuntary bodily reactions that border on the grotesque ([4], [5]). Even in dramatic or allegorical scenes, retching becomes a powerful metaphor for the breakdown of bodily control and the experience of extreme vulnerability ([6], [7]).
- He was giddy and retching from weariness, and something inside him was cold as ice, though his head burned.
— from The Path of the King by John Buchan - Again and again my heart rose; after retching two or three times I was near vomiting on the table-cloth.
— from The Bābur-nāma in English (Memoirs of Bābur) by Emperor of Hindustan Babur - A foul nausea engulfed him as he staggered toward the bathroom, falling to his knees and retching violently into the toilet.
— from Oberheim (Voices): A Chronicle of War by Christopher Leadem - Great weakness, distention of the belly, retching, hiccough, thirst, profound exhaustion, and death follow if the condition is not remedied.
— from The Home Medical Library, Volume 2 (of 6) - Bitter eructations, great nausea and retching, with a desire for stool.
— from New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies: Papers by Many Writers - She was seized by convulsions and violent retching, much to the alarm of her ladies and the physicians.
— from Memoirs of Madame la Marquise de Montespan — Volume 2 by Madame de Montespan - They might have known the choking and the retching would kill him.
— from Mary Olivier: a Life by May Sinclair
