Word of the Day
: October 16, 2009blench
playWhat It Means
: to draw back or turn aside from lack of courage : flinch
blench in Context
"'Let me behold thee then in thy bodily shape, if thou be'st indeed a fiend,' replied the dying knight; 'think not that I will blench from thee.'" (Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe)
Did You Know?
If a stranger approaches you in a dark alley, it might cause you to blench. Do you flinch or turn white? Actually, you could do both, and both would be considered blenching because there are two separate verbs spelled "blench" in English. The "blench" that means "flinch" derives from "blencan," an Old English word meaning "to deceive." The "blench" meaning "turn white" is an alteration of "blanch," from the French adjective "blanc" ("white"). Clues to which meaning is intended can often be found in context. The "flinch" use, for example, is strictly intransitive and often followed by "from" or "at" ("blenched from the sight of blood"; "didn’t blench at the sound of thunder"). The "whiten" use, meanwhile, can be intransitive ("his skin blenched with terror") or transitive ("the cold blenched her lips").
