quench \kwench\,
verb:
1. To slake, satisfy, or allay (thirst, desires, passion, etc.).
2. To put out or extinguish (fire, flames, etc.).
3. To cool suddenly by plunging into a liquid, as in tempering steel by immersion in water.
4. To subdue or destroy; overcome; quell: to quench an uprising.
5. Electronics. To terminate (the flow of electrons in a vacuum tube) by application of a voltage.
Foul water will quench fire as well as fair.
-- John Heywood, "Proverbs"
Which was not the first day at all, not Eden morning at all because girls' weather and boys' luck is the sum of all the days: the cup, the bowl proffered once to the lips in youth and then no more; proffered to quench or sip or drain that lone one time and even that sometimes premature, too soon.
-- William Faulkner, "The Town"
Quench originates from the old English cwincan, meaning 'to go out, to be extinguished.'
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