stanch

¹ American  

[stawnch, stanch, stahnch] / stɔntʃ, stæntʃ, stɑntʃ /

Also staunch

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.

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verb (used without object)

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

noun

1. Also called navigation weir, 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 American  

[stawnch, stahnch, stanch] / stɔntʃ, stɑntʃ, stæntʃ /

adjective

stancher, stanchest

1. staunch.

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stanch British  

/ 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

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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

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

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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

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stanch stancher stanchest

Such denials have failed to stanch the concerns of shoppers and consumer activists, Sarah Nassauer reports.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

But it’s not enough to stanch what the county estimates will be a $700-million annual loss by the 2028-29 fiscal year.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026

But the deregulation they won did little to stanch the bleeding.

From Slate ● Apr. 20, 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

I let every juicy morsel of anger and bitterness well up inside me, making no attempt to stanch any of it.

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam

It is larger than the common springer, and stancher, and stouter.

From The Dog by William Youatt

He saw his son Kit more than once or twice in those days, and Kit appeared to be the stancher patriot of the two.

From The Landleaguers by Anthony Trollope

His flight had made many uneasy, but his return, for that reason, brought a stancher fealty from these; and this was evident now.

From A Cumberland Vendetta by John Fox

And never had Duane bestrode a gamer, swifter, stancher beast.

From The Lone Star Ranger, a romance of the border by Zane Grey

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

But not even his stanchest admirer could pretend that his search for a brave new world constituted an outline of U.S. foreign policy.

From Time Magazine Archive

After years of concord, relations between the U.S. and her stanchest Pacific ally seemed to be falling into disturbing disarray.

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

Perfectly representative of the club's spirit are the well-known lines of one of their stanchest and most sentimental members, the late Don Marquis: A Certain Club Ah, dead and done!

From Time Magazine Archive

The Shays commotion, for a long time shaking one of the stanchest States in the Confederation, well showed the need of a far stronger central government than the old had been or could be made.

From History of the United States, Volume 2 by Elisha Benjamin Andrews

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