blanch
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Blanch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /blɑːnt͡ʃ/, /blænt͡ʃ/
Audio (Southern England): (file) Audio (Southern England): (file)
Etymology 1
From Middle English blaunchen, from Old French blanchir, from Old French blanc (“white”), from Early Medieval Latin blancus, from Frankish *blank, from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“bright, shining, blinding, white”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”).
Cognates
Cognate with blench (“to deceive, to trick”) through Proto-Indo-European, whence other etymology of blanch.
Verb
blanch (third-person singular simple present blanches, present participle blanching, simple past and past participle blanched)
- (intransitive) To grow or become white.
- His cheek blanched with fear.
- The rose blanches in the sun.
- 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171:
- Nurse Cramer's face blanched and she turned to Dunbar desperately for aid.
- (transitive) To take the color out of, and make white; to bleach.
- to blanch linen
- Age has blanched his hair.
- (transitive, cooking) To cook by dipping briefly into boiling water, then directly into cold water.
- (transitive) To whiten, for example the surface of meat, by plunging into boiling water and afterwards into cold, so as to harden the surface and retain the juices
- (transitive) To bleach by excluding the light, for example the stalks or leaves of plants, by earthing them up or tying them together
- (transitive) To make white by removing the skin of, for example by scalding
- to blanch almonds
- (transitive) To give a white lustre to (silver, before stamping, in the process of coining)
- (intransitive) To cover (sheet iron) with a coating of tin.
- (transitive, figuratively) To give a favorable appearance to; to whitewash; to whiten;
- Synonym: palliate
- c. 1680, John Tillotson, The indispensable necessity of the knowledge of the Holy Scripture
- Blanch over the blackest and most absurd things.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to grow or become white
|
to make white
to cook by dipping briefly into boiling water, then directly into cold water
|
Etymology 2
Variant of blench, of same Proto-Indo-European origin.
Verb
blanch (third-person singular simple present blanches, present participle blanching, simple past and past participle blanched)
- To avoid, as from fear; to evade; to leave unnoticed.
- 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC:
- Ifs and ands to qualify words of treason; whereby every man might express his malice, and blanch his danger.
- 1624-39, Sir Henry Wotton, Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (published 1651), page 343
- I suppose you will not blanch Paris in your way.
- To cause to turn aside or back.
- to blanch a deer
- To use evasion.
- 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Counsel”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
- Books will speak plain, when counsellors blanch.
Etymology
Pronunciation
Adjective
blanch
Etymology
From Early Medieval Latin blancus, from Frankish. Compare Italian bianco.
Adjective
blanch
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