Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To put down forcibly; suppress: Police quelled the riot.
- v. To pacify; quiet: finally quelled the children's fears.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To cause to die; put to death; kill; slay.
- To cause to cease; subdue; crush: as, to quell an insurrection.
- To reduce to peace or inaction; quiet; allay.
- To dash out; destroy.
- Synonyms To overpower, put down, lay, smother.
- To calm, compose.
- To die; perish.
- To abate.
- n. Murder.
- n. Power or means of quelling or subduing.
- To well or flow out.
- n. A spring; a fountain; a source from which water wells out.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. obsolete To die.
- v. rare To be subdued or abated; to yield; to abate.
- v. obsolete To take the life of; to kill.
- v. To overpower; to subdue; to put down.
- v. To quiet; to allay; to pacify; to cause to yield or cease
- n. obsolete Murder.
WordNet 3.0
- v. overcome or allay
- v. suppress or crush completely
Etymologies
- German Quelle. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English quellen, to kill, from Old English cwellan; see gwelə- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Errahman, and Vizier and Sultan amuse themselves by undertaking plundering expeditions against insurrectionary tribes, whose sedition they first stimulate, and then quell, that is to say, by receiving from the unlucky rebels a handsome gratification.”
“November, Sony Music issued a track called quell rumours that some of Jackson's vocals on the album were "fake".”
“I think actually he reached out very aggressively basically to the right during the campaign, kind of quell these fears that he was soft on Israel.”
“Is the expectation is he is trying to kind of quell that emotional outburst?”
“The only way to "quell" al Queda and other terrorist organisations is to send black ops to destroy the terrorist cells and so called "madrasas" that are teaching twisted definitions of shahid and jihad.”
“Some critics of the federal government plans involving local police agencies and churches cite FEMA's attempt to "quell" dissent and facilitate the confiscation of guns from private citizens.”
“Thus, as we have noted, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a practicing Mormon, had to quell concerns about his religion during his presidential bid in 2008.”
“But once it was official, they were individually summoned onto a stage to discuss their Hall of Fame inclusion, they both had to stop in mid-sentence on several occasions in an attempt to quell the tear drops.”
“For instance, virtually all teams, even at the very highest level, will, when the opponents are attacking and one of the defenders can get his foot on the ball, will simply whack it, hard, up the field to quell the danger.”
“Demonstrators led by students demanding cheaper and better state education blocked roads and lit fires as police used water cannons and tear gas to quell the latest outcry against the conservative billionaire.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quell’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT WORD DUMP - as ...
The words on this list SAT regulars that I haven't sorted and grouped yet. It's like my wordy holding pen. get it? holding the pen to write a word? HA! I love how lame my humor is.
iconoclast, glacial, agnostic, histrionic, treacly, contemptuous, captious, bombastic, bombast, perfidy, quiescence, sordid and 148 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Words
phantasmagoria, eviscerate, avast, simulacrum, varicose, oblique, gestalt, ersatz, vernal, vivace, stellate, synecdoche and 330 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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scrabble j q x z 4 and 5 letter words
revising for a competition 30 games
in 24 hours
5-Letter words with J, X, Q or Z
J
X
ADDAX ADMIX AFFIX ANNEX ATAXY AUXIN AXELS AXIAL AXILE AXILS A...azan, azon, boxy, brux, buzz, calx, chez, coax, coxa, cozy, crux, czar and 152 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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Words To Use In Creative Writing
hag-ridden, light-heeled, wendigo, longshanks, fatuous, insipid, sodden, bulging, sycophantic, uncourtly, gauche, assuasive and 102 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 288 more...
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Words
teeter, headlong, reprobate, canard, ersatz, prevaricate, trenchant, minatory, fatuous, stultify, vitiate, fulminate and 135 more...
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Buttery
Words that make me feel cozy
Noodle, Nugget, Butter, Soft, Snug, Feather, Socks, Knit, Mug, Curl, Billow, Lounge and 315 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
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Words to Learn
colloquium, resilient, ruminate, missive, sylvan, indefatigable, preclude, prowess, quiescent, caustic, verdant, specter and 119 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for quell.
chained_bear The shampoo, I believe, is spelled "Kwell."
Been a long time since I had head lice though. May 21, 2009
bilby If the current Pope said it, it would sound like qvell. May 21, 2009
jfk Might I suggest a medicated shampoo May 21, 2009
qroqqa Sorry I'm late, sir, I was quelling a native with, ah, quells.
—Capt. Hugh Jampton, 'The Battle of Spion Kop', The Goon Show May 21, 2009
rolig What a lovely word. It magnificently holds inside itself the quiet it seeks to establish. May 21, 2009
thenike5 ex.- Mr. Del Valle quelled the classroom commotion by banging his chair several times on the floor. May 21, 2009