Meaning & use
quench
Last updated
Meanings
verbtransitive
To satisfy your thirst by drinking.
Grammar: Takes an object, usually thirst: quench your thirst.
Patterns
- quench your thirst
- quench someone's thirst
A glass of cold water quenched her thirst after the run.
Nothing quenches your thirst like fresh lemonade.
The hikers stopped at a stream to quench their thirst.
verbtransitive
To put out a fire or stop something burning.
Grammar: Takes an object such as fire or flames: quench the flames.
Patterns
- quench a fire
- quench the flames
Heavy rain quenched the forest fire.
He quenched the campfire with a bucket of water.
Firefighters quenched the last of the flames before dawn.
verbtransitivefigurative
To stop or satisfy a strong wish or feeling.
Grammar: Often used with abstract nouns like desire or curiosity.
Patterns
- quench a desire
- quench someone's curiosity
The documentary did little to quench her curiosity.
Nothing could quench his desire to travel.
The harsh reply quenched their hopes.
verbtransitivetechnical
To cool hot metal quickly by putting it in water or oil.
Grammar: A technical term in metalwork.
Patterns
- quench something in something
The smith quenched the red-hot blade in oil.
Steel is hardened when it is quenched.
The glassmaker quenched the piece in water.
Word forms
| third person singular | quenches |
|---|---|
| past tense | quenched |
| past participle | quenched |
| -ing form | quenching |
Common combinations
- quench your thirst
- A cold drink will quench your thirst.
- quench a fire
- Rain helped quench the fire.
- quench the flames
- Crews worked to quench the flames.
- quench a desire
- Travel could not quench his desire for adventure.
- thirst-quenching
- The thirst-quenching juice was welcome in the heat.
Synonyms and how they differ
- slake
- Slake is a more literary word for satisfying thirst or a craving, and it is rarer than quench.
- satisfy
- Satisfy is the general word for meeting any need, while quench is mostly used for thirst.
- extinguish
- Extinguish is more formal and covers fires, lights and hopes, but it is not used for thirst.
- douse
- Douse means pouring liquid on something, often a fire, and describes the action rather than the result.
Opposites
Word family
- quenchable adjective
- able to be quenched
- unquenchable adjective
- impossible to satisfy or put out
- quencher noun
- something that quenches, especially a drink
- quenching noun
- the act of satisfying thirst or cooling metal
Commonly confused: quench or quell?
quench vs quell
Quell means to put an end to something such as a riot or a fear by force. Quench is used for thirst, fire and desire.
Practice
After the long hike, we stopped to ___ our thirst at the spring.
Choose one answer.
Quench your thirst is the standard collocation. Extinguish and douse are used for flames, and ignite means start a fire.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quench”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.