Also 8 Sc. stench. [f. STANCH v., or ad. the equivalent F. estanche (Cotgr. 1611; now étanche), which prob. existed in OF.]
† 1. That which stops or allays, also a stopping.
a. 1400–50. Stockh. Med. MS., 28. Staunch of lecherye.
1557. Grimalde, in Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 110. O frendship,… O sacred bond of blisfull peace, the stalworth staunch of strife.
1567. Diurn. Occurr. (Bannatyne Club), 110. It was rather done for the stanche of the mouthes of the peopill.
1613. Jackson, Creed, I. x. § 3. As it were, an ebbe or staunch in the affaires of the Kingdome of Israel.
1790. D. Morison, Poems, 18 (E. D. D.). E’er their cravings got a stench, His pulse fu’ sair was beatin’.
2. Something used for stanching blood, a styptic. † a. (Application uncertain). b. dial. Selenite or powdered gypsum. [Cf. F. pierre d’estanche, ‘the bloud-stone’ (Cotgr.).] c. Anglo-Irish. The leguminous plant Anthyllis vulneraria.
a. 1392. Earl Derby’s Exped. (Camden), 164. Johanni leche pro camfor et staunche.
b. 1712. J. Morton, Nat. Hist. Northamptonsh., 178. Its Use in stopping excessive Bleeding has been try’d with very good Success at Kettering; on which Account it [sc. a variety of selenite] has there the Name of Stanch.
1748. Hill, Hist. Fossils, 129.
c. 1726. Threlkeld, Synopsis Stirp. Hibern., A 6 b. Anthyllis Leguminosa … is sold in our Markets by the Name of Stanch, being astringent, as most of the Pulse Kind are.
† 3. ? Drying effect (of fire). Obs. rare–1.
1643. Steer, trans. Fabricius’ Exper. Chirurg., iii. 8. Sore by reason of the stretching of the skin, which is stretched and drawne together by the stanch of the fire.
4. A kind of after-damp in mines, etc.
1693. G. Pooley, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 674. In ancient Works,… Damps and Staunches sometimes arise.
1847. Halliwell, Staunches, damps or offensive vapours arising in underground works, mines, &c.
5. Comb.: stanch-air = sense 4; stanch-grass Sc. yarrow, Achillea Millefolium.
1768. Ross, Helenore, 9. A’ her washing cud na stench the bleed, In haste then Nory for the stench-girss yeed.
1874. R. Buchanan, Poet. Wks., I. 196. No stanchgrass ever heal’d a wound so deep!
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 237. Stanch-air.
