BLENCH

pale, blanch, blench

(verb) turn pale, as if in fear

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology 1

Verb

blench (third-person singular simple present blenches, present participle blenching, simple past and past participle blenched)

(intransitive) To shrink; start back; give way; flinch; turn aside or fly off.

(intransitive, of the eye) To quail.

(transitive) To deceive; cheat.

(transitive) To draw back from; shrink; avoid; elude; deny, as from fear.

(transitive) To hinder; obstruct; disconcert; foil.

(intransitive) To fly off; to turn aside.

Noun

blench (plural blenches)

A deceit; a trick.

A sidelong glance.

Etymology 2

Verb

blench (third-person singular simple present blenches, present participle blenching, simple past and past participle blenched)

(obsolete) To blanch.

Source: Wiktionary


Blench, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Blenched; p. pr. & vb. n. Blenching.] Etym: [OE. blenchen to blench, elude, deceive, AS. blencan to deceive; akin to Icel. blekkja to impose upon. Prop. a causative of blink to make to wink, to deceive. See Blink, and cf. 3d Blanch.]

1. To shrink; to start back; to draw back, from lack of courage or resolution; to flinch; to quail. Blench not at thy chosen lot. Bryant. This painful, heroic task he undertook, and never blenched from its fulfillment. Jeffrey.

2. To fly off; to turn aside. [Obs.] Though sometimes you do blench from this to that. Shak.

Blench, v. t.

1. To baffle; to disconcert; to turn away; -- also, to obstruct; to hinder. [Obs.] Ye should have somewhat blenched him therewith, yet he might and would of likelihood have gone further. Sir T. More.

2. To draw back from; to deny from fear. [Obs.] He now blenched what before he affirmed. Evelyn.

Blench, n.

Definition: A looking aside or askance. [Obs.] These blenches gave my heart another youth. Shak.

Blench, v. i. & t. Etym: [See 1st Blanch.]

Definition: To grow or make pale. Barbour.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

9 May 2025

RIGHT

(noun) anything in accord with principles of justice; “he feels he is in the right”; “the rightfulness of his claim”


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Coffee Trivia

The first coffee-house in Mecca dates back to the 1510s. The beverage was in Turkey by the 1530s. It appeared in Europe circa 1515-1519 and was introduced to England by 1650. By 1675 the country had more than 3,000 coffee houses, and coffee had replaced beer as a breakfast drink.

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