stanch
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to stop the flow of (a liquid, especially blood).
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to stop the flow of blood or other liquid from (a wound, leak, etc.).
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Archaic. to check, allay, or extinguish.
verb (used without object)
noun
adjective
verb
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to stem the flow of (a liquid, esp blood) or (of a liquid) to stop flowing
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to prevent the flow of a liquid, esp blood, from (a hole, wound, etc)
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an archaic word for assuage
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of stanch
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
Explanation
Use the verb stanch to describe stopping a liquid from spreading. A bandage can stanch bleeding and thick towels can stanch the flow of water across the kitchen floor when you drop a full glass of water. The vowel sound in stanch most frequently sounds like on: "stonch." Stanch can also be pronounced to rhyme with branch. Though it's a verb mostly commonly associated with keeping blood from flowing from a wound, the origin is likely the Latin word stagnum, meaning "pond, pool." This word is related to stagnate, describing water that has no movement.
Vocabulary lists containing stanch
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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:
He wrapped the leg to stanch the bleeding.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
She locked down comments on the post in an apparent attempt to stanch the torrent of mockery her made-up acronym invited.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
Parentez said Martinez drove herself to a nearby auto shop, where employees used shop towels to stanch her wounds until paramedics arrived.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2025
She tried to stanch the flow with blankets, sheets and pillows.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2024
The girl was trying to stanch the wound.
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
The Hardages also—of course you have no stancher friends than they are—have stood up stubbornly for Rowan.
From The Mettle of the Pasture by James Lane Allen
I doubt if I shall ever find a stancher one.
From Billy Topsail & Company A Story for Boys by Norman Duncan
"They could not have a stancher or prettier champion, my dear," said a gray-haired man who sat near me.
From The Mistress of Bonaventure by Harold Bindloss
Miss Aubrey was an immense favourite at Aireyholme, but among all the girls she had no stancher and more whole-hearted admirer than Githa Hamilton.
From The Jolliest Term on Record A Story of School Life by Angela Brazil
There was color in her cheeks and a stancher adjustment of the lines of her face.
From Children of the Desert by Louis Dodge
Last week, at Lahore, the fruitful work of Sir Sikander was ended: a sudden heart attack brought death to Britain's stanchest friend in India.
From Time Magazine Archive
When Quanah sang his deep-throated lament over her body, even the stanchest cowhands in the audience had to blow their noses.
From Time Magazine Archive
This did him no harm with the thousands of Texas Mexicans who are now his stanchest supporters.
From Time Magazine Archive
Father Andreus Hlinka, 73, venerated chief of the Slovak Catholic People's Party, stanchest pre-and post-War lighter for political recognition and independence of Slovaks in Czechoslovakia; at Ruzomberok.
From Time Magazine Archive
Ten of us should go with him—ten of the huskiest miners mounted upon the stanchest bronchoes the camp could supply.
From Second Book of Tales by Eugene Field
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.
