Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To put out (a fire, for example); extinguish.
  • transitive verb To suppress; squelch.
  • transitive verb To slake; satisfy.
  • transitive verb To cool (hot metal) by thrusting into water or other liquid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pit or cavity in which water can be thrown upon hot coke just manufactured in an oven, so as to cool it and leach out the soluble sulphur elements.
  • To produce a series of crusts on (molten metal), each being taken off as soon as it is formed.
  • noun The act of quenching or extinguishing; also, the state of being extinguished.
  • To extinguish or put out, as fire.
  • To extinguish or allay; stop; put an end to, as thirst.
  • To relieve the thirst of.
  • To suppress; stifle; check; repress; destroy: as, to quench a passion or emotion.
  • To lay or place in water, as a heated iron. See temper.
  • To be extinguished; go out.
  • To lose zeal; cool; become cool.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb rare To become extinguished; to go out; to become calm or cool.
  • transitive verb To extinguish; to overwhelm; to make an end of; -- said of flame and fire, of things burning, and figuratively of sensations and emotions
  • transitive verb To cool suddenly, as heated steel, in tempering.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To satisfy, especially an actual or figurative thirst.
  • verb transitive To extinguish or put out (as a fire or light.)
  • verb transitive To cool rapidly by dipping into a bath of coolant, as a blacksmith quenching hot iron.
  • noun physics The abnormal termination of operation of a superconducting magnet, occurring when part of the superconducting coil enters the normal (resistive) state.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb suppress or crush completely
  • verb cool (hot metal) by plunging into cold water or other liquid
  • verb put out, as of fires, flames, or lights
  • verb reduce the degree of (luminescence or phosphorescence) in (excited molecules or a material) by adding a suitable substance
  • verb satisfy (thirst)
  • verb electronics: suppress (sparking) when the current is cut off in an inductive circuit, or suppress (an oscillation or discharge) in a component or device

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English quenchen, from Old English -cwencan (in ācwencan, to quench).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English acwenċan.

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Examples

  • In addition, superconductivity was not particularly well understood at the time, especially the effects that would cause a magnet to dramatically and suddenly lose its superconducting powers, a phenomenon known as a "quench" that is invariably accompanied by a loud bang and a scurry to find the exit as the magnetic energy is suddenly dissipated.

    Tevatron collider falls silent today after 26 years of smash hits 2011

  • Coke comes out of the ovens at more than 1,000 degrees and goes to what's called a "quench tower" to be drenched with thousands of gallons of water.

    The Center for Public Integrity: Where regulators failed, citizens took action -- testing their own air The Center for Public Integrity 2011

  • But through an innovative use of a laboratory tool called a quench-flow machine-a machine that allows for extreme precision in the stopping, or "quenching," of a reaction-the team was able to look at what was going on over intervals of just 10 milliseconds in both yeast and human proteins.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009

  • A quench occurs when part of a magnet heats up, causing its superconducting properties to be lost.

    Rocket News 2009

  • But through an innovative use of a laboratory tool called a quench-flow machine-a machine that allows for extreme precision in the stopping, or "quenching," of a reaction-the team was able to look at what was going on over intervals of just 10 milliseconds in both yeast and human proteins.

    Media Newswire 2009

  • But through an innovative use of a laboratory tool called a quench-flow machine-a machine that allows for extreme precision in the stopping, or "quenching," of a reaction-the team was able to look at what was going on over intervals of just 10 milliseconds in both yeast and human proteins.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2009

  • But through an innovative use of a laboratory tool called a quench-flow machine-a machine that allows for extreme precision in the stopping, or "quenching," of a reaction-the team was able to look at what was going on over intervals of just 10 milliseconds in both yeast and human proteins.

    EurekAlert! - Breaking News 2009

  • The failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100C.

    The News is NowPublic.com - NowPublic.com: The News is Now Public 2008

  • A quench occurs when part of a superconducting magnet heats up and becomes resistant to electrical current; the magnet essentially starts to lose its superconducting properties.

    Top Stories - Google News 2008

  • On Friday, a failure, known as a quench, caused around 100 of the LHC's super-cooled magnets to heat up by as much as 100C.

    BBC News | Technology | World Edition 2008

Comments

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  • rapid cooling of a solid to lock it into a metastable crystal structure by preventing low-temperature processes, e.g. phase transformations

    September 8, 2007

  • Or, what I do with my thirst when I drink water. ;-)

    September 9, 2007

  • I'm a slaker, me...

    September 9, 2007

  • Ooooh, trivet's hardcore. ;-)

    September 9, 2007