v. Now dial. Also 6 sqwenche, 9 squinch. [f. QUENCH v. with prosthetic s-.]
1. trans. To extinguish, put out (a fire, etc.). Also absol.
1535. Layton, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. III. 165. The gret dynyng chambre … was sodenly fierede by sum fierbronde…. Asson as I hade sett men to sqwenche and to labor, I went into the Churche.
1541. Paynell, Catiline, vii. 11. Rather wyll a womanne squenche flame in a burnynge mouthe than kepe counsayle.
1600. 1st Pt. Contention, G 2 b. London bridge is a fire. Runne to Billingsgate, and fetch pitch and flaxe and squench [1619 quench] it.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 152. One of the Factors … was blown up by a Cartrige of Pow[d]er, and squenched his Cloathes a-flame in the Ocean.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Squench, to quench—fire or thirst.
1889. Tennyson, Owd Roa, lix. I’ll coom an’ I’ll squench the light.
2. To suppress, put an end to; to quell or stifle.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., M iv b. Our sorrowes are squenched, with pleasaunt delight.
1606. Warner, Alb. Eng., XV. xcvi. 384. Babel is falne, Vr-Caldick squencht, Delphos in no request.
c. 1610. Beaum. & Fl., Philaster, V. i. They’l flea him, and make Church Buckets on’s skin to squench rebellion.
3. To satisfy (the appetite, etc.); to slake (one’s thirst).
1598. T. Bastard, Chrestoleros (1880), 53. Whome all the worlde which late they stood vpon Could not content nor squench their appetites.
1803. Mary Charlton, Wife & Mistress, IV. 50. Forbidding her a dish of tea to squinch her thirst.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, lviii. I wouldn’t have taken much…—only enough to squench my hunger.
1876–. in various dial. glossaries.
4. To slake (lime).
1643. J. Steer, trans. Exp. Chyrurg., vi. 24. Water, wherein Lime hath been squenched, is good for the same purpose.
5. intr. To become extinguished.
1643. J. Steer, trans. Exp. Chyrurg., v. 14. Coals doe quickly squench if they are scattered about.
Hence Squencher, that which quenches.
1871. Black, in W. Reid, Biogr. (1902), iii. 95. If I had merely taken a squencher at Simpson’s in Oxford Street.
1894. Heslop, Northumberland Gloss., 682. Squinsher, an extinguisher for a candle.
