Other forms: notched, notches, notching
A notch is a small V-shaped cut in an edge or a surface. Think of the marks cut into a doorframe to record a child's height, or the little V filed into the edge of a key.
Because dials and belts are marked with notches, a notch also means one step on a scale: turn the heat up a notch, standards slipped a notch. It is a verb as well — you notch a beam so a joint sits flat — and 'notch up' means to record a score or a total: she notched up her fifth win in a month. 'Top-notch' means as good as it gets, and 'a notch above' means clearly better than the rest. In American place names a notch is a narrow pass between hills. Keep it apart from a dent, which is pushed in, and a scratch, which is dragged along; a notch is cut out of an edge.
1nounnotchA small V-shaped cut in an edge or surface.
“He cut a notch in the post to mark the water level.”
2nounstepOne step on a scale or level.
“Turn the music down a notch.”
3verbcutTo cut a small V into something.
“The carpenter notched the beam so the joint would sit flat.”
4verbrecordTo record a win, a score or a total (with up).
“The team notched up three victories in a week.”
notch is a cut.
Notch may be the result of a mishearing. It appears in English in 1577, and the likeliest account is that 'an otch' was heard as 'a notch' — the otch being Middle French oche, 'notch', from an old verb ochier, 'to notch'. English nick, a small cut, may be a relative.
Middle French
oche — notch
English, today
notch
Built from
Recorded since 1577, probably a an otch, from Middle French oche (“notch”), itself from the Old French - verb ochier (“to notch”), of uncertain origin, but possibly related to French hocher and English nick (“small cut, notch”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire
First appears in chapter 3 of A Man Called Ove.
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