One of the earliest examples of usage cited in the OED is in Golding’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses:
1565 A. Golding tr. Ovid Fyrst Fower Bks. Metamorphosis i. f. 2v Their houses were the thyckes, And bushie queaches.
from “queach, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2021. Web. 31 March 2021.
Golding uses the word on three occasions in this work:
Wyth that she turnes hir backe as though she would have gone hir way:
But evermore she looketh backe, and (closely as she may)
She hides hir in a bushie queach, where kneeling on hir knee
She alwayes hath hir eye on him.…
Thou peerlesse perle of womanhod, most woorthy for to bee
The wyfe of such a noble prince as heertofore was hee,
And still to bee the wyfe of him canonized by name,
Of Quirin: cease thy teares. And if thou have desyre the same
Thy holy husband for to see, ensew mee to the queacheThat groweth greene on Quirins hill, whoose shadowes overreache
The temple of the Romane king. Dame Iris did obey.…
Their houses were the thickes,
Metamorphosis, Ovid, translated by A. Golding W Golding, Arthur 1567
And bushie queaches, hollow caves, or hardels made of stickes.
Select the work, to examine the usage of queach.