hulch

• hulge (dialectal)

From Middle English *hulch, from Old English hylċ, related to Old English holc (“hollow, cavity”). Compare holk, hunch.

• IPA^(key): /hʌlt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -ʌltʃ

hulch (plural hulches)

1. (obsolete) A hunch, hump (on the back).^[1]
   • 1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

     I am quite lost in my understanding when I reflect upon the admirable invention of Pythagoras, who by the number, either even or odd, of the syllables of every name, would tell you of what side a man was lame, hulch-backed, blind, gouty, troubled with the palsy, pleurisy, or any other distemper incident to humankind

2. (dialectal) A thick slice, hunk.

• by hulch or by stulch (“by any means possible, at all costs”)
• hulch and stulch (“pell-mell, confusedly”)