stanchless

American  

[stawnch-lis, stahnch-, stanch-] / ˈstɔntʃ lɪs, ˈstɑntʃ-, ˈstæntʃ- /

adjective

1. not to be stanched.

   We pressed more bandages to his stanchless wound, but we couldn't save him.

2. incessant.

   a stanchless torrent of words.

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Other Word Forms

• stanchlessly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of stanchless

First recorded in 1595–1605; stanch ¹ + -less

Explanation

If the bleeding from a wound cannot be stopped, it's stanchless. Some people are so talkative that the flow of words coming from them could be described as stanchless, too — it seems that it can't be stopped. Anything that flows or pours out might be described as stanchless. You might read about "a stanchless flow of refugees" from a war zone, or the stanchless river of water pouring from a broken water main in a city. If someone is weeping inconsolably, their tears seem stanchless. Stanchless is a relatively uncommon word, mostly used in literature. It's derived from the verb stanch, meaning "stop something from flowing." The suffix -less serves to deny or negate that act of stopping.

Example Sentences

"Skoal to the stanchless flux," young Durrell ends one letter.

From Time Magazine Archive

Alas, the deep insufferable doom,   The stanchless wound!

From The House of Atreus by Morshead, E. D. A. (Edmund Doidge Anderson)

Untiring wielder of the nimblest quill That ever shed the stanchless inky rill Upon the virgin whiteness of the quire.

From Literary Tours in The Highlands and Islands of Scotland by Holmes, Daniel Turner