Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of extinguishing; also, the state of being extinguished.
  • noun In metallurgy, a method of producing a hard crust on molten metal for convenience in removing it in small plates or disks, called sometimes rosettes, instead of allowing it to solidify in one mass. See rosette.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun physics The extinction of any of several physical properties.
  • noun The rapid cooling of a hot metal object, by placing it in a liquid, in order to harden it.
  • verb Present participle of quench.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of extinguishing; causing to stop burning

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From quench +‎ -ing.

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Examples

  • a deep thirst for knowledge which I hope to begin quenching next year at the

    Key, Wilson D. 1990

  • Severstal engineers said the new line at its Dearborn, Mich., plant, which supplies Ford Motor Co. and other car makers, relies on a secret continuous-annealing formula that involves cooling steel with water—a process known as quenching—and then immediately reheating it.

    New Steel Rolled Out for Cars John W. Miller 2012

  • Well ... as everyone who knows the properties of metals will tell you, heating a metal up (in this case potassium), then as quickly as possible cooling it down (this is called quenching), makes the metal form tiny crystals, and tiny is what we want.

    The Makeshift Arsenal, by Lowry Version 1.2 1996

  • The beast of prey skulking back to his lair, the stag quenching his thirst ere retiring to the depths of the forest, the wedge of wild fowl flying with trumpet notes to some distant lake, the vulture hastening in heavy flight to the carrion that night has provided, the crane flapping to the shallows, and the jackal shuffling along to his shelter in the nullah, have each and all their portent to the initiated eye.

    Twenty-One Days in India; and, the Teapot Series George Robert Aberigh-Mackay 1864

  • The transfer of the initially absorbed energy to other nonabsorbing molecules, called "quenching" in photochemistry, enables a relatively small amount of greenhouse gases such as CO2 to continuously absorb the thermoradiative energy, which otherwise would escape into space, and to convert the radiation back to thermal energy that stays on Earth.

    Archive 2009-08-01 EliRabett 2009

  • The transfer of the initially absorbed energy to other nonabsorbing molecules, called "quenching" in photochemistry, enables a relatively small amount of greenhouse gases such as CO2 to continuously absorb the thermoradiative energy, which otherwise would escape into space, and to convert the radiation back to thermal energy that stays on Earth.

    Rabett Run EliRabett 2009

  • The old Virginia Inn at the cross roads claims to be the actual scene of the "quenching" of Sir Walter Raleigh.

    Wanderings in Wessex An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter Edric Holmes

  • It's not that different in theory from "quenching" metal after it's been tempered / hardened.

    Mandolin Cafe News 2009

  • It's not that different in theory from "quenching" metal after it's been tempered / hardened.

    Mandolin Cafe News 2009

  • It's not that different in theory from "quenching" metal after it's been tempered / hardened.

    Mandolin Cafe News 2009

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