Word of the Day

Friday, December 05, 2003

stanch

\STONCH; STANCH\ , transitive verb;

To stop the flowing of; to check in its course; also, to stop the flowing of blood from; as, "to stanch a wound."

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Quotes:

Out of the corner of my eye I can see one of Shiggy's daughters busy at the rear door with a mop and a mountain of napkins, furious activity, but not enough to stanch the flow of water seeping inexorably into the room.

-- T. Coraghessan Boyle, A Friend of the Earth

Otherwise Stalin might have feared that President Harry Truman would stanch any North Korean invasion by threatening to use atomic weapons.

-- John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America

Origin:

Stanch is from Old French estancher, "to stop a liquid from flowing."