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Quench
Definitions
- 1 The act of quenching something; the fact of being quenched.
"Then the MacManus [i.e. a ship] went down. The sudden quench of the white light was how I knew it."
- 2 The abnormal termination of operation of a superconducting magnet, occurring when part of the superconducting coil enters the normal (resistive) state.
"There are two main types of quenches, and both are triggered by the red button. A customer of ours actually pushed his once, out of curiosity. And no, he was not 7 years old. This button is primarily for safety purposes. In some rare cases, clear signage is ignored and metal objects like mop buckets, oxygen tanks, etc. get sucked into the bore of the MRI. These are very difficult to remove while the magnet is at field. And, if a patient is somehow pinned inside, an emergency push of the quench button can be a lifesaver. The button artificially heats the magnet and starts the chain reaction described above."
- 3 A rapid change of the parameters of a physical system.
- 1 To satisfy, especially a literal or figurative thirst. transitive
"The library quenched her thirst for knowledge."
- 2 cool (hot metal) by plunging into cold water or other liquid wordnet
- 3 To extinguish or put out (as a fire or light). transitive
"[…] others ſaying, the fire would ceaſe as ſoon as it had vent, uncovered a great part of the houſe, breaking down the roofs, and destroying all that ſtood in their way. None of them went about to quench the fire, but all were employed in pulling down the houſe, […]"
- 4 reduce the degree of (luminescence or phosphorescence) in (excited molecules or a material) by adding a suitable substance wordnet
- 5 To cool rapidly by direct contact with liquid coolant, as a blacksmith quenching hot iron. transitive
"The swordsmith quenched the sword in an oil bath so that it wouldn't shatter."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 suppress or crush completely wordnet
- 7 To terminate or greatly diminish (a chemical reaction) by destroying or deforming the remaining reagents. transitive
- 8 satisfy (thirst) wordnet
- 9 To rapidly change the parameters of a physical system. transitive
"A suitable method to prepare a system out of equilibrium in order to study the ensuing dynamics is to quench the system, i.e., to change its parameters abruptly."
- 10 suppress (sparking) when the current is cut off in an inductive circuit, or suppress (an oscillation or discharge) in a component or device wordnet
- 11 To rapidly terminate the operation of a superconducting electromagnet by causing part or all of the magnet's windings to enter the normal, resistive state. transitive
"If someone is pinned against the MRI magnet by a ferromagnetic object, you may need to quench the magnet in order to free them."
- 12 put out, as of fires, flames, or lights wordnet
Etymology
From Middle English quenchen, from Old English cwenċan, from Proto-Germanic *kwankijaną.
From Middle English quenchen, from Old English cwenċan, from Proto-Germanic *kwankijaną.
See also for "quench"
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