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Blench

//blɛnt͡ʃ// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A deceit; a trick.
  2. 2
    A sidelong glance.

    "These blenches gave my heart another youth."

Verb
  1. 1
    To shrink; start back; give way; flinch; turn aside or fly off. intransitive

    "Blench not at thy chosen lot."

  2. 2
    To blanch. obsolete

    "The seasons are come to a stagnant stop, the trees blench and wither, the wagons role in the mica ruts with slithering harplike thuds."

  3. 3
    turn pale, as if in fear wordnet
  4. 4
    To quail. intransitive
  5. 5
    To deceive; cheat. transitive
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    To draw back from; shrink; avoid; elude; deny, as from fear. transitive

    "Yesterday the government proclaimed no turning back, but the lords representing the likes of the disability charity Scope or Macmillan Cancer Support should make them blench."

  2. 7
    To hinder; obstruct; disconcert; foil. transitive
  3. 8
    To fly off; to turn aside. intransitive

    "Though sometimes you do blench from this to that."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English blench and blenchen, from Old English blenċan (“to deceive, cheat”), from Proto-Germanic *blankijaną (“to deceive”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ-. Cognate with Icelandic blekkja (“to deceive, cheat, impose upon”).

Etymology 2

From Middle English blench and blenchen, from Old English blenċan (“to deceive, cheat”), from Proto-Germanic *blankijaną (“to deceive”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ-. Cognate with Icelandic blekkja (“to deceive, cheat, impose upon”).

Etymology 3

From Old French blanchir (“to bleach”).

See also for "blench"

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