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Webster 1913 Edition

Blench

Blench

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Blenched
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Blenching
.]
[OE.
blenchen
to blench, elude, deceive, AS.
blencan
to deceive; akin to Icel.
blekkja
to impose upon. Prop. a causative of
blink
to make to wink, to deceive. See
Blink
, and cf. 3d
Blanch
.]
1.
To shrink; to start back; to draw back, from lack of courage or resolution; to flinch; to quail.
Blench
not at thy chosen lot.
Bryant.
This painful, heroic task he undertook, and never
blenched
from its fulfillment.
Jeffrey.
2.
To fly off; to turn aside.
[Obs.]
Though sometimes you do
blench
from this to that.
Shakespeare

Blench

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To baffle; to disconcert; to turn away; – also, to obstruct; to hinder.
[Obs.]
Ye should have somewhat
blenched
him therewith, yet he might and would of likelihood have gone further.
Sir T. More.
2.
To draw back from; to deny from fear.
[Obs.]
He now
blenched
what before he affirmed.
Evelyn.

Blench

,
Noun.
A looking aside or askance.
[Obs.]
These
blenches
gave my heart another youth.
Shakespeare

Blench

,
Verb.
I.
&
T.
[See 1st
Blanch
.]
To grow or make pale.
Barbour.

Webster 1828 Edition

Blench

BLENCH

,
Verb.
I.
[This evidently is the blanch of Bacon [see Blanch.] and perhaps the modern flinch.]
To shrink; to start back to give way.

BLENCH

,
Verb.
T.
To hinder or obstruct, says Johnson. But the etymology explains the passage he cites in a different manner. 'The rebels carried great trusses of hay before them, to blench the defendants' fight.' That is, to render the combat blank; to render it ineffectual; to break the force of the attack; to deaden the shot.

BLENCH

,
Noun.
A start.

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