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

Congress often uses it as the threshold for a host of phase-ins, phaseouts and other provisions to raise revenue or stanch revenue loss.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

He wrapped the leg to stanch the bleeding.

From Slate ● Jul. 7, 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

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

The sole question that remained was how best to stanch the wound.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

There was color in her cheeks and a stancher adjustment of the lines of her face.

From Children of the Desert by Louis Dodge

I made some stanch friends in those days, but never a stancher, truer one than Dicky Graham.

From Revelations of a Wife The Story of a Honeymoon by Adele Garrison

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

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

All Lima knew that Peru did not contain a stancher Royalist than Rosa Montilla.

From At the Point of the Sword by Herbert Hayens

There's not a stancher, closer-mouthed creature in existence than Bear.

From Nobody's Child by Elizabeth Dejeans

This did him no harm with the thousands of Texas Mexicans who are now his stanchest supporters.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

The country had every reason to believe that grey-haired old Dan Willard, with the confidence of Labor and his mildly liberal views, was the stanchest pillar in a quaking railroad world.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

He saw Bart Hodge, who had once been his bitter enemy, but who had become his stanchest friend.

From Frank Merriwell's Bravery by Burt L. Standish

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