Other forms: quenching, quenched, quenches
To quench is to satisfy a thirst, or to put a fire out. Quench your thirst, quench the flames, unquenchable.
The two senses share the idea of ending something burning. In metalwork, quenching is plunging hot steel into water or oil to harden it, and how fast it cools decides the hardness — which is one of the oldest pieces of engineering knowledge there is. Note unquenchable, used of thirst and of enthusiasm; and that quench is Old English.
1verbquenchTo satisfy a thirst, or to put a fire out.
“A glass of cold lemonade quenched my thirst after the long walk.”
2verbcoolTo cool hot steel quickly to harden it.
“The blacksmith quenched the red-hot blade in a bucket of cold water.”
quench is a putting out or satisfying.
Old English cwencan is Germanic, related to a verb meaning to go out or be extinguished. The thirst sense and the fire sense have run together throughout.
Proto-Germanic
*kwankijaną
Old English
cwenċan
Middle English
quenchen
English, today
quench
From Middle English quenchen, from Old English cwenċan, from Proto-Germanic kwankijaną.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire