blench1
[blench]
- to shrink; flinch; quail: an unsteady eye that blenched under another's gaze.
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Origin of blench1
before 1000; Middle English blenchen, Old English blencan; cognate with Old Norse blekkja, Middle High German blenken
blench2
[blench]
- to make or become pale or white; blanch.
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Origin of blench2
First recorded in 1805–15; variant of blanch1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for blench
Historical Examples
Like Hamlet with the king at the play, "If he but blench, I know my course!"
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
But she did not blench in the least, though she remembered whose words he was quoting.
T. TembaromFrances Hodgson Burnett
But though it fell, the people of the dauntless city did not blench.
Vistas in SicilyArthur Stanley Riggs
His cheek did not blench, his lips quiver, nor his limbs tremble.
Bits of BlarneyR. Shelton Mackenzie
Now it is the turn of his judges to blench, for his persecutors to tremble.
The Strange Story of Rab RbyMr Jkai
blench1
- (intr) to shy away, as in fear; quail
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Word Origin
Old English blencan to deceive
blench2
- to make or become pale or white
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Word Origin
C19: variant of blanch
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for blench
v.
Old English blencan "deceive, cheat," from Proto-Germanic *blenk- "to shine, dazzle, blind," from PIE root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn" (see bleach (v.)). Sense of "move suddenly, wince, dodge" is from c.1300. Related: Blenched; blenching.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper