Adjacent Words

Blench definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BLENCH, v.i. [This evidently is the blanch of Bacon [see Blanch.] and perhaps the modern flinch.]
To shrink; to start back to give way.
BLENCH, v.t. To hinder or obstruct, says Johnson. But the etymology explains the passage he cites in a different manner. "The rebels carried great trusses of hay before them, to blench the defendants' fight." That is, to render the combat blank; to render it ineffectual; to break the force of the attack; to deaden the shot.
BLENCH, n. A start.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: turn pale, as if in fear [syn: pale, blanch, blench]

Merriam Webster's

I. intransitive verb Etymology: Middle English, to deceive, blench, from Old English blencan to deceive; akin to Old Norse blekkja to impose on Date: 13th century to draw back or turn aside from lack of courage ; flinch Synonyms: see recoil II. verb Etymology: alteration of blanch Date: 1813 bleach, whiten

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.intr. flinch; quail. Etymology: ME f. OE blencan, ult. f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blench Blench, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Blenched; p. pr. & vb. n. Blenching.] [OE. blenchen to blench, elude, deceive, AS. blencan to deceive; akin to Icel. blekkja to impose upon. Prop. a causative of blink to make to wink, to deceive. See Blink, and cf. 3d Blanch.] 1. To shrink; to start back; to draw back, from lack of courage or resolution; to flinch; to quail. Blench not at thy chosen lot. --Bryant. This painful, heroic task he undertook, and never blenched from its fulfillment. --Jeffrey. 2. To fly off; to turn aside. [Obs.] Though sometimes you do blench from this to that. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blench Blench, v. t. 1. To baffle; to disconcert; to turn away; -- also, to obstruct; to hinder. [Obs.] Ye should have somewhat blenched him therewith, yet he might and would of likelihood have gone further. --Sir T. More. 2. To draw back from; to deny from fear. [Obs.] He now blenched what before he affirmed. --Evelyn.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blench Blench, n. A looking aside or askance. [Obs.] These blenches gave my heart another youth. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Blench Blench, v. i. & t. [See 1st Blanch.] To grow or make pale. --Barbour.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. n. Shrink, flinch, start back, give way, yield, weaken. II. v. a. Shrink from, evade, shirk, avoid.

Moby Thesaurus

ache, agonize, ail, anguish, avoid, blanch, bleach, blink, boggle, cringe, decolor, decolorize, demur, dodge, draw back, duck, evade, fade, fall back, falter, feel pain, feel the pangs, fight shy of, flinch, funk, grimace, hang back, hang off, have a misery, have qualms, hesitate, hold off, hurt, jib, make bones about, pause, pound, pull back, quail, recoil, reel back, retreat, scruple, sheer off, shoot, shrink, shrink back, shy, shy at, sidestep, smart, squinch, start, start aside, start back, stick at, stickle, strain, suffer, swerve, thrill, throb, tingle, turn aside, twinge, twitch, waver, weasel, weasel out, white, wince, writhe