squelch

[skwelch]

verb (used with object)

1. to strike or press with crushing force; crush down; squash.

2. to put down, suppress, or silence, as with a crushing retort or argument.

verb (used without object)

1. to make a splashing sound.

2. to tread heavily in water, mud, wet shoes, etc., with such a sound.

noun

1. a squelched or crushed mass of anything.

2. a splashing sound.

3. an act of squelching or suppressing, as by a crushing retort or argument.

4. Also called noise suppressor. Also called squelch circuit,. Electronics.,  a circuit in a receiver, as a radio receiver, that automatically reduces or eliminates noise when the receiver is tuned to a frequency at which virtually no carrier wave occurs.

squelch

/ skwɛltʃ /

verb

1. (intr) to walk laboriously through soft wet material or with wet shoes, making a sucking noise

2. (intr) to make such a noise

3. (tr) to crush completely; squash

4. informal,  (tr) to silence, as by a crushing retort

noun

1. a squelching sound

2. something that has been squelched

3. electronics a circuit that cuts off the audio-frequency amplifier of a radio receiver in the absence of an input signal, in order to suppress background noise

4. informal,  a crushing remark

Other Word Forms

• squelcher noun
• squelchingly adverb
• squelchingness noun
• unsquelched adjective
• squelching adjective
• squelchy adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of squelch¹

1610–20; variant of quelch in same sense (perhaps blend of quell and quash ); initial s perhaps from squash ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of squelch¹

C17: of imitative origin

Example Sentences

My socks squelch with each step in my new boots, earning a string of cringes.

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I see now that I was being “optoomuchstic” in thinking I could squelch your natural curiosity and powers of deduction.

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Still, she said, the case revealed "a series of statements by Zuckerberg at the time of those acquisitions that looked like a desire to squelch a nascent threat to Facebook's dominance".

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This year has seen unrelenting bad news for L.A. nightlife — the impacts of the wildfires, the continued Hollywood strike fallout, the cost-of-living crisis and ICE raids and protests that temporarily squelched downtown’s after-dark industry.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Heavy hailstones hissed into the grass and squelched into the mud and clanged off our robot.

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Related Words

• crush 
• extinguish 
• muffle 
• oppress 
• repress 
• smother 
• squash 
• stifle 
• thwart