quench

From Middle English quenchen, from Old English cwenċan, acwenċan, from Proto-Germanic *kwankijaną.

• IPA^(key): /kwɛnt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɛntʃ

quench (third-person singular simple present quenches, present participle quenching, simple past and past participle quenched)

1. (transitive) To satisfy, especially an actual or figurative thirst.

   The library quenched her thirst for knowledge.

   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     I began also to feel very hungry, as not having eaten for twenty-four hours; and worse than that, there was a parching thirst and dryness in my throat, and nothing with which to quench it.

2. (transitive) To extinguish or put out (as a fire or light).

   Then the MacManus went down. The sudden quench of the white light was how I knew it. — Saul Bellow

3. (transitive, metallurgy) To cool rapidly by dipping into a bath of coolant, as a blacksmith quenching hot iron.

   The swordsmith quenched the sword in an oil bath so that it wouldn't shatter.

4. (transitive, chemistry) To terminate or greatly diminish (a chemical reaction) by destroying or deforming the remaining reagents.

• (satisfy a thirst): appease, slake

quench (plural quenches)

1. (physics) The abnormal termination of operation of a superconducting magnet, occurring when part of the superconducting coil enters the normal (resistive) state.