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.

---

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 American  

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

adjective

stancher, stanchest

1. staunch.

---

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

---

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

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stanch stancher stanchest

Nixon imposed a global 10% tariff to stanch the deteriorating U.S. balance of payments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 8, 2026

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

From Slate ● Apr. 20, 2026

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2025

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

We had learned to understand each other well, and no man ever had a stancher comrade than I had in Mishka Pavloff.

From The Red Symbol by Ironside, John

I doubt if I shall ever find a stancher one.

From Billy Topsail & Company A Story for Boys by Duncan, Norman

"An' she's stancher--a wonderful lot stancher," continued the other.

From The Gaunt Gray Wolf A Tale of Adventure With Ungava Bob by Wallace, Dillon

"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 Bindloss, Harold

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

From The Dog by Youatt, William

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

Even Willkie's stanchest supporters here concede that he would have trouble winning the nomination again.

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

In a worldwide broadcast after the war began a fortnight ago, Communism's stanchest foe, Pope Pius, left Hitler's crusade strictly alone, spoke no word that could possibly be stretched to favor the Nazi campaign.

From Time Magazine Archive

The managers of the Switchmen's Union had been shrewd and wise in naming as members of their committee three of the oldest, stanchest, and most faithful hands in the employ of the company.

From Harper's Round Table, July 23, 1895 by Various