squelch
Americanverb (used with object)
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to strike or press with crushing force; crush down; squash.
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to put down, suppress, or silence, as with a crushing retort or argument.
verb (used without object)
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to make a splashing sound.
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to tread heavily in water, mud, wet shoes, etc., with such a sound.
noun
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a squelched or crushed mass of anything.
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a splashing sound.
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an act of squelching or suppressing, as by a crushing retort or argument.
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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.
verb
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(intr) to walk laboriously through soft wet material or with wet shoes, making a sucking noise
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(intr) to make such a noise
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(tr) to crush completely; squash
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informal (tr) to silence, as by a crushing retort
noun
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a squelching sound
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something that has been squelched
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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
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informal a crushing remark
Other Word Forms
- squelcher noun
- squelching adjective
- squelchingly adverb
- squelchingness noun
- squelchy adjective
- unsquelched adjective
Etymology
Origin of squelch
1610–20; variant of quelch in same sense (perhaps blend of quell and quash ); initial s perhaps from squash 1
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.
The forecast “was not enough to squelch the worry. Despite management coming out swinging, it’s the numbers, not the words, weighing on shares,” Ader wrote.
From Barron's • Jan. 29, 2026
It’s an agreeably heartfelt reminder that children are powered by an imaginative daring and purity of bonding we’d be wise to nurture, not squelch, if we’re going to learn how to inhabit the increasingly uninhabitable.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 23, 2026
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".
From BBC • Nov. 18, 2025
When the Federal Reserve tried to squelch the rise of the stock market in early 1929, Mitchell announced that National City would instead lend money to support the market.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025
No squelch, no snap of Morse code, no voices.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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.
