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

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

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

Bull straightened up and pressed a fist to his throbbing ear, trying to stanch the invisible bleeding.

From "Flush" by Carl Hiaasen

"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 was peering into our dock-yards to find steamers and sailing-vessels out of which to gather makeshift navies, until it could find leisure to build stancher ships.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 88, February, 1865 by Various

Among all Miss Russell's thirty pupils you could not have found two stancher friends than Lindsay Hepburn and Cicely Chalmers, both of whom were members of the third, or lowest, class.

From The Manor House School by Dixon, Arthur A.

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)

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 Fox, John

Soon afterward the two men met, and ever since Carter Glass and Jesse Jones have been the stanchest of friends, the warmest of mutual admirers.

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

Senator Schwellenbach is one of the New Deal's stanchest upholders.

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

Only the stanchest and best-seasoned old salts of Montauk or New London would have felt altogether at home, that afternoon, in the "Swallow."

From St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. V, August, 1878, No 10. Scribner's Illustrated by Various