Forms: 2–3 blenchen, 3 (blinche), 3–5 blenche, 4– blench. Pa. t. 3–4 bleinte, 4 bleynte, blynchid, 4–5 blent. [A word or series of words of very obscure history. Sense 1 is evidently:—OE. blęncan to deceive, cheat = ON. blekkja (:—blenkja) to impose upon, which point to an OTeut. type *blankjan, assumed to be the causal of a strong *blinkan to BLINK; but, as no trace of the latter occurs in early times, the origin of blęncan is thus left uncertain. The northern form was BLENK, q.v. The sense-development is involved, from confusion of blenk and blink, of blench and blanch, prob. also of the pa. t. blent with blent pa. t. of BLEND v.1, and other causes: little can be done at present except to exhibit the senses actually found in use.] To cheat, elude, turn aside. Related to BLENK and BLINK.
† 1. trans. To deceive, cheat. Obs.
a. 1000. Be monna môde, 33 (Gr.). Wrenceð he and blenceð.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 55. Abuten us he is for to blenchen.
[c. 1400. Destr. Troy, VI. 2483. Let no blyndnes you blenke.]
2. intr. To start aside, so as to elude anything; to swerve, ‘shy’; to flinch, shrink, give way.
c. 1205. Lay., 1460. Corineus bleinte.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 242. Þe horse þet is scheouh, & blencheð uor one scheadewe.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 170. Ich am war, and can well blenche.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 226. Ther with al he bleynte and cride A!
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. xvii. [Rays that] passeth not alwey forþe ryzte, but blencheþ [1582 swarue] sum wheþer of þe streite wey.
c. 1500. Partenay, 4268. Apart Gaffray … Somwhat blent, the stroke … passing by With hym noght mette.
1553. Bale, Gardiner’s Obed., C vij. He obeyeth truly, which … blenchet not out of the waye of Goddes commaundementes.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. v. 5. Hold you euer to our speciall drift, Though sometimes you doe blench from this to that As cause doth minister.
a. 1625. Fletcher, False One, IV. iv. Art thou so poor to blench at what thou hast done?
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. xii. Foul fall him that blenches first.
1876. Emerson, Ess., Ser. I. xi. 262. I blench and withdraw on this side and on that.
† b. Of a ship: To turn or heel over. Obs.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 1411. Þe schup bigan to blenche.
3. trans. To elude, avoid, shirk; to flinch from; to blink. [The first quot. perhaps in form belongs rather to BLINK.]
[c. 1300. Beket, 2184. He nas noȝt the man that wolde: his heved enes withdrawe, Ne fonde for to blinche a strok.]
1663. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), III. 142. He now blenched what before … he affirmed to me.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., I. v. 100. Will not suffer me to blench his merits.
† 4. trans. To turn aside or away (the eyes). Obs.
c. 1400. Roland, 402. He kest up his browes & blenchid his eye.
[c. 1400. Melayne, 570.] See BLENK v. 3.
† 5. trans. To disconcert, foil, put out, turn aside. Cf. BLENK v. 4. Obs.
[a. 1400. See BLENK v. 4.]
1485. Caxton, Trevisa’s Higden, IV. xxxiii. (1527), 181. The enemyes were blente thrugh goddes myghte.
1577. Stanyhurst, Descr. Irel., in Holinshed, VI. 16. Heere perchanse M. Cope may blench me, in replieing that Anguis may be construed generallie.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 155 b. Carrying vp great trusses of hay before them, to blench the defendants sight, and dead their shot.
a. 1640. Jackson, Wks. (1844), VIII. 122. Being blenched in his right course by the shadow.
6. intr. Of the eyes: To lose firmness of glance, to flinch, quail. [The first quot. may belong to 2.]
[c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (1840), 215. This royal bridde … Blenchithe never for al the cliere light.]
1775. Burke, Amer. Tax., Wks. II. 404. That glaring and dazzling influence at which the eyes of eagles have blenched.
1837. Howitt, Rur. Life, II. v. (1862), 150. His eyes seemed to blench before her still fixed gaze.
