Also 6–7 stinch(e, 7 stanch. [OE. stęncan (Northumbrian):—prehistoric *staŋkwjan, f. *staŋkwi-z STENCH sb. In the 16th c. (sense 2) prob. a new formation on the sb.]
1. intr. To have an ill smell, to stink.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., John xi. 39. Uutudlice stenceð [Vulg. fetet].
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8401. Þe smoke þer of ssolde boþe stenche & blende.
1570. Levins, Manip., 134/36. To stinche, fœtere.
2. trans. To cause to emit a stench, to make to stink, to render offensive. Also with up. ? Obs.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. 163 b. The Goose … stencheth the ground with her vnprofitable … dounging.
1596. Harington, Apol., Aa 7 b. This same companie hath so stencht vp his house, that he must be forced to lye at London tyll his house be made sweeter.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm. (1649), II. 203. But after a Goose that stanches the grasse they [sc. sheep] will not [feed].
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv., iii. 13. Is not Middleborough, Roterdam, Delf,… stinched every dry Autumn with infinite swarms of dead frogs, putrifying the aire worse then carrion?
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 227. ’Tis the foulness of the Ponds only that stencheth the Water.
1762. Young, Resign., I. 96. Dead Bards stench every Coast.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Nov., 371. Taking the sheep off their feed to lodge in the night, we think of great use, as it prevents dropping their soil on the pasture (what our shepherds here term stenching their food).
1838. Hood, To Mr. Izaac Walton, 10. ‘How dare you,’ says I, ‘for to stench the whole house by keeping that stinking liver?’
3. To subject to stenches.
1824. Blackw. Mag., XV. 473. The fullest impression that could be purchased by our being parched, passported,… starved and stenched, for 1200 miles.
Hence Stenching ppl. a.
1654. Z. Coke, Logick, 37. Smel. Simple. Sweet or Stinching.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. l. As if … some divine Vertue could lye hid in a stenching ulcerated rotten Shank.
1905. Dundee Advertiser, 1 March, 8. The villages are vile and stenching.
Stench, obs. form of STANCH v., STAUNCH a.
1659. Lady Alimony, III. iii. F 4 b. And if thou canst not live so stench But thou must needs enjoy thy Wench.
