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staunch

adj
/stɔːn(t)ʃ/UK/stɔn(t)ʃ/US

Etymology

From Middle English staunch, staunche (“(adjective) in good condition or repair; solidly made, firm; watertight; of a person or wound: not bleeding; certain; intact; (adverb) firmly, soundly”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman estaunche, Old French estanche (“firm; watertight”) (modern French étanche (“airtight; watertight”)), a variant of estanc (“a pond”), from estanchier (“to stop the flow of a liquid (blood, water, etc.); to make (something) watertight; to quench (thirst)”) (modern French étancher), possibly from one of the following: * From Vulgar Latin *stagnicāre, from Latin stāgnum (“piece of standing water, pond; fen, swamp”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂g- (“to drip; to seep”). * From Vulgar Latin *stānticāre, from *stānticus (“tired”), from Latin stāns, stāntis (“standing; remaining, staying”). Stāns is the present active participle of stō (“to stand; to remain, stay”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand (up)”). Cognates * Italian stanco (“bored; tired”) * Portuguese estanque (“watertight”) * Romansh staunza (“a room”) * Spanish estanco (“closed, sealed; airtight; watertight”)

  1. derived from *steh₂-✻ — “to stand (up)”
  2. derived from stans — “standing; remaining, staying”
  3. derived from *stānticāre✻
  4. derived from *steh₂g-✻ — “to drip; to seep”
  5. derived from stāgnum — “piece of standing water, pond; fen, swamp”
  6. derived from *stagnicāre✻
  7. derived from estanche — “firm; watertight”
  8. derived from estaunche
  9. inherited from staunch

Definitions

  1. Not permitting water or some other liquid to escape or penetrate

    Not permitting water or some other liquid to escape or penetrate; watertight.

    • Yet if I knevv, / VVhat Hoope ſhould hold vs ſtaunch from edge to edge / Ath'vvorld [of the world]: I vvould perſue it.
    • Our Proviſions held out vvell, our Ship vvas ſtaunch, and our Crevv all in good Health; but vve lay in the utmoſt diſtreſs for VVater.

  2. Strongly built

    Strongly built; also, in good or strong condition.

    • Hovv goodly, and hovv to be vviſht vvere ſuch an obedient unanimity as this, vvhat a fine conformity vvould it ſtarch us all into? doubtles a ſtanch and ſolid peece of frame-vvork, as any January could freeze together.
    • [T]he house a stanch good old building, and what was singular, some of the roomes floor'd dove-tail-wise without a nail, exactly close. One of the closetts is parquetted with plaine deale, set in diamond, exceeding stanch and pretty.
    • [T]he VVorld continues ſtill as firm and ſtaunch as it vvas three thouſand years ago; and vvhy hereafter it ſhould founder and decay more than it hath done for ſo many Ages heretofore, vvhat reaſon can be given?

  3. Staying true to one's aims or principles

    Staying true to one's aims or principles; firm, resolute, unswerving.

    • Without our staunch front line the enemy would have split the regiment.
    • In Politicks, I hear, you're ſtanch, / Directly bent againſt the French; / Deny to have your free-born Toe / Dragoon'd into a VVooden Shoe: […]
  4. ›+ 8 more definitions

    1. Dependable, loyal, reliable, trustworthy.

      • He’s been a staunch supporter of mine through every election.
      • [T]here ain't a stauncher-hearted gal going, or I'd have cut her throat three months ago.
      • Never at any time in its history has there been so much universal anger at and criticism of the Southern. The railway's staunchest friends must concede that most of it is justified.

    2. Cautious, restrained.

    3. Stubborn, intransigent.

    4. Alternative spelling of stanch.

      • I will couer the depe vpon him, I will ſtaunch his floudes, and the greate waters ſhalbe reſtrayned.
      • He that has not uſurp'd the name of man, / Does all, and deems too little, all he can, / T' aſſuage the throbbings of the feſter'd part, / And ſtaunch the bleedings of a broken heart; […]
      • [T]he iron head of a square cross-bow bolt disengaged itself from the wound, the bleeding was staunched, the wound was closed, and the dying man was, within the quarter of an hour, walking upon the ramparts, […]

    5. That which stanches or checks a flow.

    6. An act of stanching or stopping.

    7. Synonym of afterdamp (“suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused…

      Synonym of afterdamp (“suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused by firedamp”).

    8. Alternative spelling of stanch (“a floodgate by which water is accumulated, for floating…

      Alternative spelling of stanch (“a floodgate by which water is accumulated, for floating a boat over a shallow part of a stream by its release; also, a dam or lock in a river”).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for staunch. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA