28 December 2017

blench(1)

[blench]

verb (used without object)

1. to shrink; flinch; quail:
an unsteady eye that blenched under another’s gaze.

Origin of blench(1)

Middle English, Old English
1000 before 1000; Middle English blenchen, Old English blencan; cognate with Old Norse blekkja, Middle High German blenken

Related forms

blencher, noun
blenchingly, adverb

blench(2)

[blench]

verb (used with or without object)

1. to make or become pale or white; blanch.

Origin

First recorded in 1805-15; variant of blanch(1)

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for blench

Historical Examples

Like Hamlet with the king at the play, “If he but blench, I know my course!”
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald

But she did not blench in the least, though she remembered whose words he was quoting.
T. Tembarom
Frances Hodgson Burnett

But though it fell, the people of the dauntless city did not blench.
Vistas in Sicily
Arthur Stanley Riggs

Today’s quote

Heresy is another word for freedom of thought.

– Graham Greene

On this day

28 December – the fourth day of the 12 days of Christmas (Western Christianity).

28 December 1945 – the United States Congress officially recognises the pledge of allegiance to the flag, which states, ‘I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all’.

28 December 1981 – the world’s first test-tube baby is born after being conceived in a lab dish. Her name is Elizabeth Jordan Carr and she weighed 5lb 12oz.