quell
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kwɛl/
rhymes: -ɛl
Forms: form: quells
form: quelling
form: quelled
form: quelled
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: quell
form: quell
form: quelled
form: quell
form: quellest
form: quelled
form: quelledst
form: quells
form: quelleth
form: quelled
form: quell
form: quelled
form: quell
form: quelled
form: quell
form: -
form: quelling
form: quelled
Etymology: From Middle English quellen, from Old English cwellan (“to kill”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwalljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwaljaną (“to make die; kill”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-. Cognate with German quälen (“to torment; agonise; smite”), Swedish kvälja (“to torment”), Icelandic kvelja (“to torture; torment”). Compare also Old Armenian կեղ (keł, “sore, ulcer”), Old Church Slavonic жаль (žalĭ, “pain”). See also kill, which may be its doublet.
Senses: examples: text: The nation obeyed the call, rallied round the sovereign, and enabled him to quell the disaffected minority.
ref: 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
text: Northward marching to quell the sudden revolt.
ref: 1858 October 16, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, in The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:
synonyms: crush
glosses: To subdue, put down, or silence (someone or something); to force (someone) to submit.
examples: text: to quell grief
text: to quell the tumult of the soul
text: However, after quelling Burnley's threat, Southampton failed to build on their growing danger culminating in Tadic's missed penalty.
ref: 2014 December 13, Mandeep Sanghera, “Burnley 1-0 Southampton”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To suppress, to put an end to (something); to extinguish.
examples: text: Like barbarous miſcreants, they quelled Virgins vnto death, […]
ref: 1625, Yvo of Narbena, Matthew Paris, “Part of an Epistle Written by One Yvo of Narbena vnto the Archbishop of Burdeaux, Containing the Confession of an Englishman, as Touching the Barbarous Demeanour of the Tartars, which had Liued Long among Them, and was Drawne along Perforce with Them in Their Expedition against Hungarie: Recorded by Matthew Paris in the Year [of] Our Lord 1243”, in [Samuel] Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 3rd part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 1st book, pages 63–64:
text: Well prov'd in that same day, when Jove those gyants quelled.
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To kill.
examples: text: Winter's wrath begins to quell.
ref: 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To be subdued or abated; to diminish.
examples: text: Yet he did quake and quaver, like to quell.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: To die.