quench
Americanverb (used with object)
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quenches,
present (3rd person singular)
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quenched,
past participle, past
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quenching
present participle
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to slake, satisfy, or allay (thirst, desires, passion, etc.).
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to put out or extinguish (fire, flames, etc.).
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to cool suddenly by plunging into a liquid, as in tempering steel by immersion in water.
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to subdue or destroy; overcome; quell.
to quench an uprising.
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Electronics. to terminate (the flow of electrons in a vacuum tube) by application of a voltage.
verb
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to satisfy (one's thirst, desires, etc); slake
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to put out (a fire, flame, etc); extinguish
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to put down or quell; suppress
to quench a rebellion
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to cool (hot metal) by plunging it into cold water
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physics to reduce the degree of (luminescence or phosphorescence) in (excited molecules or a material) by adding a suitable substance
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electronics
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to suppress (sparking) when the current is cut off in an inductive circuit
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to suppress (an oscillation or discharge) in a component or device
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Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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quenchablenessnoun
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quenchernoun
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quenchableadjective
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quenchlessadjective
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unquenchableadjective
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unquenchedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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quenchsimple
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quenchessimple
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have quenchedperfect
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has quenchedperfect
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am quenchingprogressive
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are quenchingprogressive
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is quenchingprogressive
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have been quenchingperfect progressive
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has been quenchingperfect progressive
Past
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quenchedsimple
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had quenchedperfect
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was quenchingprogressive
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were quenchingprogressive
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had been quenchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of quench
1150–1200; Middle English quenchen, earlier cwenken; compare Old English -cwencan in ācwencan to quench ( cf. a- 3)
Explanation
Quench means to put out, put an end to, or satisfy. If you're stranded in the middle of the desert with nothing to drink, you're probably dreaming of a nice big glass of ice water to quench your thirst. Quench originally meant “extinguish fires.” That meaning still works today, but we've expanded it to also apply to quenching the fiery thirst of a summer marathon runner or quenching the hot flames of passion. If you want to get deep about the word quench, consider what Voltaire said: “Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them.”
Vocabulary lists containing quench
Where the Red Fern Grows
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40 SAT words Beginning with "Q"
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"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury (1950)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The unexploded ordnance, some of which was heard going off during the dayslong effort to quench the fire, made it harder for firefighters to get close to the blaze.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
"It's mainly to quench our thirst, and we have to give our animals water too," Andras, a student, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
I too had done horrible things to quench my self-loathing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2026
When it stopped raining he found a spring where he was able to quench his thirst, but he was so unwell he was unable to eat one of the snack bars he was carrying.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2025
Some nights they crossed small streams, which gave them a chance to refresh themselves, quench their thirst, and soothe their aching feet.
From "Copper Sun" by Sharon M. Draper
Berkeley Lab scientists have developed an approach to prevent quenches altogether, rather than simply trying to manage them after they occur.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 11, 2024
There is, legitimately, no item on earth that quenches and refreshes like good ol' water — especially when you've eaten something especially heavy or you've accidentally eaten the equivalent of your body weight in candy.
From Salon ● Oct. 25, 2023
The river, which cascades from the Rockies down to the deserts of the Southwest, quenches the thirst of 40 million people in the U.S. and Mexico and sustains a $15 billion-a-year agricultural industry.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 18, 2022
Foremilk quenches the infant’s thirst, whereas hindmilk satisfies the infant’s appetite.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
Our enthusiasm for genius or virtue is thus turned into a jest by the very person who has kindled it, and who thus fatally quenches the spark of both.
From Hazlitt on English Literature An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature by Jacob Zeitlin
I sipped on this drink during a midday walk and it kept me cool, quenched and satisfied.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2025
They quenched their thirst by drinking contaminated water from a nearby well.
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2025
Where temperatures never breached freezing, where less than half of sea-level oxygen quenched lungs, where gale-force winds scoured the hardscrabble rocks littering the peaks.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 23, 2023
And, finally in Cleveland, he kept teams competitive despite financial limitations and nearly quenched a championship drought in 2016 on the way to becoming the winningest manager in the club’s 123-year history.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 26, 2023
It often seemed near—the heavenly world—but never had he quite reached it, never had he quenched the final thirst.
From "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse
It manufactures neodymium magnets by pouring liquid alloy onto a rotating, cooled disk, then rapidly quenching and pulverizing it to freeze the delicate crystalline structure at a microscopic scale before it can grow.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
The primary solution to resolve this crisis would’ve been to pump a neutralizing agent into the problem tank, quenching it and making it no longer explosive.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
They are used to quenching their thirst with snow, but with little or no snowfall, they can easily get dehydrated.
From Barron's ● Feb. 10, 2026
But there was a problem: No amount of dam building seemed capable of quenching the West’s thirst for water.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2024
So I curse the perfect beach, and the cool, quenching drink that I can feel in my hand, but can never, ever raise to my lips.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
