Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To put out (a fire, for example); extinguish.
- v. To suppress; squelch: The disapproval of my colleagues quenched my enthusiasm for the plan.
- v. To put an end to; destroy.
- v. To slake; satisfy: Mineral water quenched our thirst.
- v. To cool (hot metal) by thrusting into water or other liquid.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To extinguish or put out, as fire.
- To extinguish or allay; stop; put an end to, as thirst.
- To relieve the thirst of.
- To suppress; stifle; check; repress; destroy: as, to quench a passion or emotion.
- To lay or place in water, as a heated iron. See temper.
- To be extinguished; go out.
- To lose zeal; cool; become cool.
- n. The act of quenching or extinguishing; also, the state of being extinguished.
- To produce a series of crusts on (molten metal), each being taken off as soon as it is formed.
- n. A pit or cavity in which water can be thrown upon hot coke just manufactured in an oven, so as to cool it and leach out the soluble sulphur elements.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To satisfy, especially an actual or figurative thirst.
- v. transitive To extinguish or put out (as a fire or light.)
- v. transitive To cool rapidly by dipping into a bath of coolant, as a blacksmith quenching hot iron.
- n. physics The abnormal termination of operation of a superconducting magnet, occurring when part of the superconducting coil enters the normal (resistive) state.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To extinguish; to overwhelm; to make an end of; -- said of flame and fire, of things burning, and figuratively of sensations and emotions
- v. To cool suddenly, as heated steel, in tempering.
- v. rare To become extinguished; to go out; to become calm or cool.
WordNet 3.0
- v. suppress or crush completely
- v. cool (hot metal) by plunging into cold water or other liquid
- v. put out, as of fires, flames, or lights
- v. reduce the degree of (luminescence or phosphorescence) in (excited molecules or a material) by adding a suitable substance
- v. satisfy (thirst)
- v. electronics: suppress (sparking) when the current is cut off in an inductive circuit, or suppress (an oscillation or discharge) in a component or device
Etymologies
- From Old English acwenċan. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English quenchen, from Old English -cwencan (in ācwencan, to quench). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In addition, superconductivity was not particularly well understood at the time, especially the effects that would cause a magnet to dramatically and suddenly lose its superconducting powers, a phenomenon known as a "quench" that is invariably accompanied by a loud bang and a scurry to find the exit as the magnetic energy is suddenly dissipated.”
The Guardian: Tevatron collider falls silent today after 26 years of smash hits
“Coke comes out of the ovens at more than 1,000 degrees and goes to what's called a "quench tower" to be drenched with thousands of gallons of water.”
“But through an innovative use of a laboratory tool called a quench-flow machine-a machine that allows for extreme precision in the stopping, or "quenching," of a reaction-the team was able to look at what was going on over intervals of just 10 milliseconds in both yeast and human proteins.”
“A quench occurs when part of a magnet heats up, causing its superconducting properties to be lost.”
“The failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100C.”
The News is NowPublic.com - NowPublic.com: The News is Now Public
“A quench occurs when part of a superconducting magnet heats up and becomes resistant to electrical current; the magnet essentially starts to lose its superconducting properties.”
“On Friday, a failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100C.”
“A quench occurs when part of a superconducting magnet heats up and causes superconducting properties to be lost.”
“The problem occurred last weekend, when a failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100 degrees.”
“The loss of supercooled helium caused a rapid release of stored energy (an event known as a quench), heating the magnets and destabilizing the vacuum conditions.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quench’.
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Old words
Old words: modern English words that are old according to criteria that are still vague: Either words common to several old languages or words substantially similar in old English. Please add to or...
mother, father, bark, spit, old, fire, this, that, black, thou, to give, hand and 259 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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Q words
Ever get stuck with the random bunch of letters and a q and not know any words? Well, maybe this will help.
quire, quais, quai, queer, quoit, quitrent, quipster, question, quest, questing, quests, quit and 208 more...
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2nd part
prelude, ample, escalate, prototype, accession, acquisition, archives, zealot, indict, verdict, intimidating, timid and 454 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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Mr. Prolagus is surprised
Words - or different usages of words I already knew - that I am learning thanks to Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.
See also ofravens' with thanks to Anne Shirley.alder, decorum, ferret, dint, wont, gauntlet, turnip, sorrel, deft, embower, scant, peck and 92 more...
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summerwing's Words
proctosigmoidoscopy, horrendous, cichlid, implode, nostalgic, firmament, elucidate, quintet, rhombus, mack, pithy, rambunctious and 304 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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addendumb's Words
fey, cockshut, redact, beatific, melange, arcanum, rarefied, dissemble, capitulation, detritus, ennui, anodyne and 381 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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beautiful words
quench, metropolitan, dollop, cucumber, aesthetic, superfluous, gastronomy, nymph, obsequious, serendipity, champagne, gossamer and 125 more...
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1
horizon, echo, undulation, resonance, reflection, acoustic, swoosh, distant, glide, interspace, marbles, radiant and 144 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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Another day, a whole nother list
rump, spot on, flank, outflank, rank, bedeck, leafhopper, apocope, academic, set-to, point of no return, cloy and 210 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for quench.

reesetee Ooooh, trivet's hardcore. ;-) Sep 8, 2007
trivet I'm a slaker, me... Sep 8, 2007
reesetee Or, what I do with my thirst when I drink water. ;-) Sep 8, 2007
addendumb rapid cooling of a solid to lock it into a metastable crystal structure by preventing low-temperature processes, e.g. phase transformations Sep 8, 2007