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. To satisfy, especially an actual or figurative thirst.
- v. To extinguish or put out (as a fire or light.)
- v. To cool rapidly by dipping into a bath of coolant, as a blacksmith quenching hot iron.
- n. 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. 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
- Middle English quenchen, from Old English -cwencan (in ācwencan, to quench).
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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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, quit, quipster, question, quest, questing, quests and 208 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 4084 more...

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