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View synonyms for notch

notch

[ noch ]

noun

  1. an angular or V -shaped cut, indentation, or slit in an object, surface, or edge.
  2. a cut or nick made in a stick or other object for record, as in keeping a tally.
  3. New England and Upstate New York. a deep, narrow opening or pass between mountains; gap; defile.
  4. Informal. a step, degree, or grade:

    This camera is a notch better than the other.

  5. Metallurgy. a taphole in a blast furnace:

    iron notch; cinder notch.



verb (used with object)

  1. to cut or make a notch in.
  2. to record by notches:

    He notched each kill on the stick.

  3. to score, as in a game:

    He notched another win.

notch

/ nɒtʃ /

noun

  1. a V-shaped cut or indentation; nick
  2. a cut or nick made in a tally stick or similar object
  3. a narrow pass or gorge
  4. informal.
    a step or level (esp in the phrase a notch above )
“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


verb

  1. to cut or make a notch in
  2. to record with or as if with a notch
  3. informal.
    usually foll by up to score or achieve

    the team notched up its fourth win

“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
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Other Words From

  • notchy adjective
  • un·notched adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of notch1

1570–80; a notch (by false division) for an *otch < Old French oche notch
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Word History and Origins

Origin of notch1

C16: from incorrect division of an otch (as a notch ), from Old French oche notch, from Latin obsecāre to cut off, from secāre to cut
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Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. notch up / down, to move up or down or increase or decrease by notches or degrees:

    The temperature has notched up another degree.

More idioms and phrases containing notch

see take down a notch .
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Example Sentences

About two weeks before your gathering, though, it’s time to take your efforts up a notch.

Take your kitchen game up a notch when you invest in creative cookware.

However, there are certain things you can do to take your search engine optimization a notch up with Bing.

Instead, use those patterns as signals for when to ramp up activities or take things down a notch.

Billings suggested that it might be possible to store information about people as notches in the sides of cards.

Now they are a notch on a belt, and the savior can feel good about themselves.

Can you imagine Superman being handed over to a writer just a notch above amateur?

And from the start, with top-notch production values certainly upgraded from a “YouTube video,” Alpha House did.

With top-notch designers, developers, and producers, they can even transform their own platforms.

But while they have been taken down a notch, giants like Goldman Sachs still tower over their regulators.

There must be a fly-wheel, with a notch to carry the rope, and also a small notch wheel on the drum-axle.

The sides of the notch were steep, and the boys rode through it in single file, Matt taking the lead.

The ridge was broken by a notch, and the road crawled through the opening and into the defile.

Matt had just time to catch a glimpse of a rock rushing down the side of the notch.

In less than a quarter of an hour afterward he reached the notch, Matt wheeling into it close at his heels.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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not by any meansnotch baby