▪ I. † blench, n. Obs.
Also (in sense 1) 3–4 blenk, blenc.
[f. blench v.1 Cf. blenk n.2]
1. A trick, stratagem. to do or make a blenk or blench: to play a trick.
| a 1250 Owl & Night. 378 He [the fox] haveþ mid him blenches ȝarewe. a 1300 Havelok 307 Hope maketh fol man ofte blenkes. c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. B. 1201 Þe kyng..a counsayl hym takes..A blench for to make. 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 274 Þe Scottis now þei þenk of gile..How þei mot do a blenk tille Edward & hise. 1340 Ayenb. 130 And uerliche makeþ his blench. |
2. A turning of the eyes aside, a side glance. rare.
| c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cx, Most true it is, that I haue lookt on truth Asconce and strangely: But by all aboue, These blenches gaue my heart an other youth. |
▪ II. blench, a.
Sc. form of blanch a., where see blench-farm, etc.
▪ III. blench, v.1
(blɛnʃ)
Forms: 2–3 blenchen, 3 (blinche), 3–5 blenche, 4– blench. pa. tense 3–4 bleinte, 4 bleynte, blynchid, 4–5 blent.
[A word or series of words of very obscure history. Sense 1 is evidently:—OE. blęncan to deceive, cheat = ON. blekkja (:—blenkja) to impose upon, which point to an OTeut. type *blankjan, assumed to be the causal of a strong *blinkan to blink; but, as no trace of the latter occurs in early times, the origin of blęncan is thus left uncertain. The northern form was blenk, q.v. The sense-development is involved, from confusion of blenk and blink, of blench and blanch, prob. also of the pa. tense blent with blent pa. tense of blend v.1, and other causes: little can be done at present except to exhibit the senses actually found in use.]
To cheat, elude, turn aside. Related to blenk and blink.
† 1. trans. To deceive, cheat. Obs.
| a 1000 Be monna môde 33 (Gr.) Wrenceð he and blenceð. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 55 Abuten us he is for to blenchen. [c 1400 Destr. Troy vi. 2483 Let no blyndnes you blenke.] |
2. intr. To start aside, so as to elude anything; to swerve, ‘shy’; to flinch, shrink, give way.
| c 1205 Lay. 1460 Corineus bleinte. a 1225 Ancr. R. 242 Þe horse þet is scheouh, & blencheð uor one scheadewe. a 1250 Owl & Night. 170 Ich am war, and can well blenche. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 226 Ther with al he bleynte and cride A! 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iii. xvii, [Rays that] passeth not alwey forþe ryȝte, but blencheþ [1582 swarue] sum wheþer of þe streite wey. c 1500 Partenay 4268 Apart Gaffray..Somwhat blent, the stroke..passing by With hym noght mette. 1553 Bale Gardiner's Obed. C vij. He obeyeth truly, which..blenchet not out of the waye of Goddes commaundementes. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iv. v. 5 Hold you euer to our speciall drift, Though sometimes you doe blench from this to that As cause doth minister. a 1625 Fletcher False One iv. iv, Art thou so poor to blench at what thou hast done? 1808 Scott Marm. vi. xii, Foul fall him that blenches first. 1876 Emerson Ess. Ser. i. xi. 262, I blench and withdraw on this side and on that. |
† b. Of a ship: To turn or heel over. Obs.
| a 1300 K. Horn 1411 Þe schup bigan to blenche. |
3. trans. To elude, avoid, shirk; to flinch from; to blink. [The first quot. perhaps in form belongs rather to blink.]
| [c 1300 Beket 2184 He nas noȝt the man that wolde: his heved enes withdrawe, Ne fonde for to blinche a strok.] 1663 Evelyn Mem. (1857) III. 142 He now blenched what before..he affirmed to me. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. I. v. 100 Will not suffer me to blench his merits. |
† 4. trans. To turn aside or away (the eyes). Obs.
| c 1400 Roland 402 He kest up his browes & blenchid his eye. [c 1400: see blenk v. 3.] |
† 5. trans. To disconcert, foil, put out, turn aside. Cf. blenk v. 4. Obs.
| [a 1400. See blenk v. 4.] 1485 Caxton Trevisa's Higden iv. xxxiii. (1527) 181 The enemyes were blente thrugh goddes myghte. 1577 Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. in Holinshed VI. 16 Heere perchanse M. Cope may blench me, in replieing that Anguis may be construed generallie. 1602 Carew Cornwall, Carrying vp great trusses of hay before them to blench the defendants sight & dead their shot. a 1640 Jackson Wks. (1844) VIII. 122 Being blenched in his right course by the shadow. |
6. intr. Of the eyes: To lose firmness of glance, to flinch, quail. [The first quot. may belong to 2.]
| [c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (1840) 215 This royal bridde..Blenchithe never for al the cliere light.] 1775 Burke Amer. Tax. Wks. II. 404 That glaring and dazzling influence at which the eyes of eagles have blenched. 1837 Howitt Rur. Life ii. v. (1862) 150 His eyes seemed to blench before her still fixed gaze. |
▪ IV. blench, v.2
[A variant of blanch v.1 (The confusion is partly phonetic, as in blanch, blench a.; partly of sense, since, with fear, the cheeks blanch, the eyes blench.)]
1. intr. To become pale.
| 1813 Hogg Queen's Wake 26 Where the vexed rubies blench in death, Beneath yon lips and balmy breath. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg. 286 That little foot page he blenched with fear. |
2. trans. To whiten, make pale. rare.
| 1839 Bailey Festus (ed. 3) 16/1 The northern tribes Whom ceaseless snows and starry winters blench. |
▪ V. blench, v.3
obs. variant of blemish q.v.