Definition of retches:
(v) :
(transitive, intransitive) To make or experience an unsuccessful effort to vomit; to strain or spasm, as if to vomit; to gag or nearly vomit.
(v) :
(transitive, intransitive, loosely) To vomit; to make or experience a successful effort to vomit.
(n) :
An unsuccessful effort to vomit.
(v) :
(ambitransitive, obsolete) To reck.
(v) :
(dialectal) Alternative form of reach. [(intransitive) To extend, stretch, or thrust out (for example a limb or object held in the hand).]