🥤 To satisfy thirst 🤐 To suppress 🛠️ To cool metal 💡 To stop light

to quench

1 7.1

To cool hot metal quickly in water or oil to make it hard

verb
/kwɛntʃ/

Specialized

: templar

Then he quenched his torch in the water, and the boy moved the little vessel away into the night.

Now if you're asking yourself why don't I quench this blade again, well I just can't.

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Examples

After quenching, the castings are hoisted from the tank and returned to Flame Metals' clients for further treatment, typically to harden in batch ovens.

Academic text (1999)
And I will quench one in oil and the other in two plates.

Black Beard Projects
It will harden the blade by quenching it in oil.
Quiet for an Ogier, it sounded like steam rushing out from quenching red-hot iron.

Fiction book (1991)
The blacksmith carefully quenched the hot steel by immersing it in water.
After heating the metal to a glowing red, he quenched it in oil to harden its surface.
To ensure the blade retained its sharpness, it is important to quench the metal properly after shaping.

Antonyms

to heat

298 1.0

To make something hot or warmer

to anneal

Specialized

1 8.9

To heat metal or glass then let it cool slowly to make it stronger

Idioms

to quench one's thirst

5 2.7

To drink until you no longer feel a need for water

How Fast

to quench

Specialized

1 7.1

to cool

256 1.0

to anneal

Specialized

1 8.9

Surface Forms

quench infinitive

quenched past

quenched past participle

quenching present participle

quenches third person singular

Etymology

Quench comes from the Old English cwencan, which meant 'to put out' or 'die away'. A blacksmith 'puts out' the heat in hot metal by dipping it in water, so this cooling step is called 'quenching' the metal.