quell

• IPA^(key): /kwɛl/

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From Middle English quellen, from Old English cwellan (“to kill”), from Proto-Germanic *kwaljaną (“to make die; kill”). Cognate with German quälen (“to torment; agonise; smite”), Swedish kvälja (“to torment”), Icelandic kvelja (“to torture; torment”). Compare also Old Armenian կեղ (keł, “sore, ulcer”), Old Church Slavonic жаль (žalĭ, “pain”).

quell (third-person singular simple present quells, present participle quelling, simple past and past participle quelled)

1. (transitive) To subdue, to put down; to silence or force (someone) to submit. [from 10th c.]
   • 1849, Thomas Macaulay, History of England, Chapter 1:

     The nation obeyed the call, rallied round the sovereign, and enabled him to quell the disaffected minority.

   • (Can we date this quote by Longfellow?)

     Northward marching to quell the sudden revolt.

2. (transitive) To suppress, to put an end to (something); to extinguish. [from 14th c.]

   to quell grief

   to quell the tumult of the soul

   • 2014 December 13, Mandeep Sanghera, “Burnley 1-0 Southampton”, in BBC Sport‎:

     However, after quelling Burnley's threat, Southampton failed to build on their growing danger culminating in Tadic's missed penalty.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To kill. [9th-19th c.]
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)
4. (obsolete, intransitive) To be subdued or abated; to diminish. [16th-17th c.]
   • (Can we date this quote by Edmund Spenser?)

     Winter's wrath begins to quell.

5. To die.
   • 1590, w:Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Chapter 7:

     Yet he did quake and quaver, like to quell.

quell (plural quells)

1. A subduing.
   • 1903, Knowledge: A Monthly Record of Science

     The quell of the rebellion raised Justinian to the acme of power.

   • 1978, Shiu Heng Chook, Chiang Kai-shek Close-up: A Personal View

     Hu had been supportive of Chiang's role throughout the northern expedition and the quell of southern rebellion.

   • 1994, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. international drug control policy: recent experience, future options : seminar proceedings, Government Printing Office →ISBN

     The consequences have not been significant in terms of the quell of any of the three drugs into the United States.

   • 1998, Mirza Arshad Ali Beg, Democracy Displaced in Pakistan: Case History of Disasters of Social Pollution

     Each Martial Law was marked by the quell of civil liberties or human rights.

   • 2013, Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire, Scholastic UK

     But to make things even worse, this is the year of the Seventy-fifth Hunger Games, and that means it's also a Quarter Quell. They occur every twenty-five years, marking the anniversary of the districts' defeat with over-the-top celebrations and, for extra fun, some miserable twist for the tributes.

   • 2014, Markham J. Geller, Melammu: The Ancient World in an Age of Globalization, epubli →ISBN, page 136

     An example can be found in the data about the campaigns of Aššur-bān-apli against Arab tribes after the quell of the revolt of Šamaš-šumukīn.

• “quell” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

From Middle English *quelle (suggested by the verb quellen (“to well up; gush forth”)), from Old English cwylla, *cwielle (“spring; source”), from Proto-Germanic *kwellǭ (“well; spring”). Compare German Quelle.

quell (plural quells)

1. A source, especially a spring.
   • 1894, George Egerton, Discords

     And when they had eaten, and sat resting in a grotto, he was still singing, and she was the goddess of his Muse, — the quell of living waters out of which he drew fresh strength for new lays.

   • 1969, Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, Ada, Or, Ardor, a Family Chronicle, Vintage →ISBN

     Other excruciations replaced her namesake's loquacious quells so completely that when, during a lucid interval, she happened to open with her weak little hand a lavabo cock for a drink of water, the tepid lymph replied in its own lingo […]

   • 2001, Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Andrea Römmele, Public Information Campaigns and Opinion Research: A Handbook for the Student and Practitioner, SAGE →ISBN, page 82

     The strategists had access to a wide array of private polling and information from focus groups; a quell of information stretching back over his years as a state-wide candidate and office holder.

2. An emotion or sensation which rises suddenly.
   • 2001, Zane Gates, The Cure, iUniverse →ISBN, page 241

     A quell of strength over took Robin with each of his words. She was about to fall apart, but Jacob was as brave as a warrior going into battle.

   • 2011, Linda Lee Chaikin, Hawaiian Crosswinds, Moody Publishers →ISBN

     For a moment their eyes locked, and she felt a quell of anger rise above her apprehension. Reality struck with appalling clarity, yet she could only lie down, partially drugged and untidy as she was from such rough traveling.

   • 2012, Molly Hopkins, It Happened at Boot Camp: Exclusive Novella, Hachette UK →ISBN

     I read on. It will cost two hundred and fifty quid. I felt a quell of alarm, that's quite expensive.

quell

1. Alternative form of quellen