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:
No, this project, which comes with an estimated price tag of $5 billion to $20 billion a year, wouldn’t quench specific heat waves or fires.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
Consumer tastes have changed dramatically since Coke’s heyday, and Vita Coco has responded with a product mix that should quench investors’ thirst for growth and reasonable value.
From Barron's ● Nov. 13, 2025
“For a lot of people, a beverage is just to quench the thirst or get an energy boost with caffeine, so yeah maybe the tea behind it isn’t really that important for them.”
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2025
On the other hand, they wrote, allowing potentially defective drugs to be widely used is akin to "drinking poison to quench thirst".
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2025
He dropped it into the stone cooling pool in the forge to quench it.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
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
It’s home to fishers and boats, feeds rich farmlands, powers turbines and quenches local populations across its banks and delta.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 23, 2023
Foremilk quenches the infant’s thirst, whereas hindmilk satisfies the infant’s appetite.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
It is farther certain that in man the spiritual nature dominates and controls the vital, except when under abnormal conditions the latter unduly gains the mastery, and quenches altogether the spirit.
From The Origin of the World According to Revelation and Science by John William Dawson
I sipped on this drink during a midday walk and it kept me cool, quenched and satisfied.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2025
"Everything seems to happen faster and more dramatically in the early universe, and that might include galaxies moving from a star-forming phase to dormant or quenched," said Looser.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2024
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
“We’ve fought fire with fire, never thinking that fire is sometimes best quenched with water. This approach failed.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2023
“To hear is to obey, but March is fairer far than May,” said little Parker, making a frantic effort to be both witty and tender, and getting promptly quenched by Laurie, who said...
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
"When that happens, triplets easily fizzle out before they ever meet. Molecules must be close enough for energy to transfer but separated enough to prevent quenching of excitons."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 26, 2026
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
When Tehlu struck the fourth, there was the sound of quenching iron and the smell of burning leather.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
