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
Derived Forms
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squelchernoun
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squelchingnessnoun
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squelchingadjective
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squelchyadjective
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unsquelchedadjective
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squelchinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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squelchsimple
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squelchessimple
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have squelchedperfect
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has squelchedperfect
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am squelchingprogressive
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are squelchingprogressive
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is squelchingprogressive
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have been squelchingperfect progressive
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has been squelchingperfect progressive
Past
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squelchedsimple
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had squelchedperfect
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was squelchingprogressive
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were squelchingprogressive
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had been squelchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of squelch
1610–20; variant of quelch in same sense (perhaps blend of quell and quash ); initial s perhaps from squash 1
Explanation
When you squelch something, you're putting an end to it. You can squelch an idea or a rebellion. This word has several meanings, but it's usually a verb for crushing things. A mean remark could squelch your self-confidence, and a powerful military could squelch an invading country. Squelching can also mean to make a squelch-like sucking sound — or to slop, slosh, splash, and squish through the mud. There's also a type of electric circuit that cuts off when the signal is weak: that's a squelch circuit, which squelches the connection.
Vocabulary lists containing squelch
"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 14–18
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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The BFG
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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:
Louise Grillmair, similarly, says that - while her husband "would laugh" at speculation that the deaths might be connected - he would also "probably talk statistically" to squelch conspiracies.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
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
In fact, both Black activists and congressional champions of Reconstruction understood that race still mattered, and that made it critical to give Congress broad powers to squelch efforts to suppress or cancel out Black votes.
From Slate ● Oct. 7, 2025
The policy “represents one of the most caustic, corrosive and chilling efforts to squelch the voice of this commission, the office of inspector general and the Sybil Brand Commission,” Johnson said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2025
We were surrounded by silence and when we started to move towards the boat, you could hear the squelch under our shoes.
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
What crushes confidence is uncertainty that squelches investment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
But for the most part, this being a show about the possibilities of even the most minimal stage, a minimal stage makes an apt enough setting, and the style enhances more than it squelches.
From New York Times ● Oct. 30, 2022
Antiretroviral treatment squelches HIV reproduction but sensitive tests show that even with the most effective treatments, small populations of white blood cells studded with the CD4 receptor harbor HIV’s DNA in a latent state.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 3, 2022
“To end any of that suspicion, if you have the means to do so, it squelches a lot of that if you get someone who comes in and has an opposing view.”
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 12, 2019
“I guess the return of the jewels squelches the Macdougal theory,” he remarked.
From The Black Box by Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Touring the Marylander Condominiums in Prince George’s County, Md., I noticed how the ground squelched under my shoes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
So far, the higher rates have softened but not squelched buyer demand in the spring home-buying season, he noted.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 26, 2026
Had there been better information, a more bounded threat, the arms race of the missile age might have been squelched before it took off.
From Slate ● Feb. 3, 2026
The fabled front was always understood to be window dressing veiling frustrations, squelched desires, and countless other malignancies.
From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2023
When he moved forward his feet squelched and he had to take off his shoes and shake them out before he could go on.
From "Stormbreaker" by Anthony Horowitz
Hnath’s sequel, without squelching the politics, picks up the forgotten human story of Ibsen’s indelible classic.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2025
When it comes to the body horror aspect of it all, “The Substance” delivers on all fronts, from its heightened satire, squelching and crackling sound effects, and revved-up visuals.
From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2024
A woman was told that her flooded flat was "habitable" - despite having "squelching" wet carpets and broken fire alarms.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2023
Wednesday to shovel mud out from under the cars that had been mired along Fredonia Drive, their boots slipping and squelching in the thick sludge that still stood a few feet high in some areas.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2023
The only sound was the squelching of their feet as they plodded on.
From "Rowan of Rin" by Emily Rodda
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.
