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.  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.

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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

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

He wrapped the leg to stanch the bleeding.

From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026

Meanwhile, the perversion of ordinary goods to serve a fully militarized state is encapsulated in the difficulty the boy has in finding white flour: None is available because it’s being used to stanch wounds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

The sale could help stanch losses from last year’s box-office flop “Megalopolis,” which cost over $120 million to make and was largely financed by the 86-year-old director.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 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

Zac’s nose was gushing blood, and Mr. Baker was trying to stanch the flow with a handful of napkins.

From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson

Wordsworth had no stancher friend, his poetry had no more delicate critic, than Charles Lamb; and Lamb wrote thus in 1815 to Wordsworth about "Alice Fell" and the assailants of the poem.

From The Galaxy Vol. XXIII?March, 1877.?No. 3 by Various

She was of about 500 Ton, and Kidd told us at the Councel, there never was a stronger or stancher Ship seen.

From Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period Illustrative Documents by Jameson, J. Franklin (John Franklin)

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

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

"And I have youth and mining experience and the inside track, as well as stancher friends than he ever dreamed of," laughed Ridgway, clapping the other on the back.

From Ridgway of Montana (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain) by Raine, William MacLeod

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

From At the Point of the Sword by Hayens, Herbert

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

Distinguished lawyer-Democrat, in 1918 he ran against Alfred E. Smith in the gubernatorial primary and was so impressed by his defeat that he became one of Governor Smith's 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

We can imagine, however, that the stanchest woman's-right lady should cry for her lost lover.

From The Landleaguers by Trollope, Anthony