stanch

¹

Also staunch

[stawnch, stanch, stahnch]

verb (used with object)

1. to stop the flow of (a liquid, especially blood).

2. to stop the flow of blood or other liquid from (a wound, leak, etc.).

3. Archaic.,  to check, allay, or extinguish.

verb (used without object)

1. to stop flowing, as blood; be stanched.

noun

1. Also called navigation weir. Also called flash-lock. a lock that, after being partially emptied, is opened suddenly to send a boat over a shallow place with a rush of water.

stanch

²

[stawnch, stahnch, stanch]

adjective

stancher, stanchest 

1. staunch.

stanch

/ stɑːntʃ, stɔːntʃ /

verb

1. to stem the flow of (a liquid, esp blood) or (of a liquid) to stop flowing

2. to prevent the flow of a liquid, esp blood, from (a hole, wound, etc)

3. an archaic word for assuage

noun

1. a primitive form of lock in which boats are carried over shallow parts of a river in a rush of water released by the lock

Other Word Forms

• stanchable adjective
• stancher noun
• unstanchable adjective
• stanchly adverb
• stanchness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of stanch¹

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English stanchen, staunchen (verb) < Old French estanchier “to close, stop, slake (thirst),” from Vulgar Latin stanticāre (unattested), equivalent to Latin stant- (stem of stāns, present participle of stāre to stand ) + -icāre causative suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of stanch¹

C14: from Old French estanchier , from Vulgar Latin stanticāre (unattested) to cause to stand, from Latin stāre to stand, halt

Example Sentences

She ran to a portable toilet and grabbed a handful of paper towels to stanch the bleeding.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Deadly leadership battles are a problem that has long plagued other nations at the epicenter of Latin America’s decades-old drug war, underscoring the difficulty of stanching violence and curbing the flow of drugs.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Customer defections prompted several pay-TV companies to find a compromise to restore the darkened TV channels and stanch the subscriber bleeding.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But that is unlikely to stanch the escalating scrutiny of its business practices in France.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Parentez said Martinez drove herself to a nearby auto shop, where employees used shop towels to stanch her wounds until paramedics arrived.

Read more on Salon