Blănch1, v. t.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. BLÁNCHED (blăncht); p. pr. & vb. n. BLÁNCHING.] [Fr. blanchir, from blanc, white; Pr. blanchir, blanquir. Cf. BLANK.]
Sense 1. To take out the color, and make white; to whiten; to make blank. “Blanched locks.” W. Scott.
Keep the natural ruby of your cheeks When mine are blanched with fear. Shak.
Sense 2. To make white by stripping off the peel; as, to blanch almonds. Wiseman.
Sense 3. (Gardening.) To whiten by excluding the light, as the stalks or leaves of plants, by earthing them up or tying them together. Brande.
Sense 4. (Fig.) To whiten; to give a favorable appearance; to slur; to pass over.
Blanch over the blackest and most absurd things in the world. Tillotson.
Sense 5. To avoid, as from fear; to evade. See BLENCH.
Its ends and aims to qualify the words of treason, whereby every man might express his malice and blanch his danger. Bacon.
I suppose you will not blanch Paris in your way.
Religioe Wottonianae.
Synonyms—To BLANCH, WHITEN. To whiten is the generic term, denoting, to render white; as, to whiten the walls of a room; whited sepulchres. Usually (though not of necessity) this is supposed to be done by superinducing a white color upon the object in question. To blanch is to whiten by the removal of coloring matter; as, to blanch linen, to blanch almonds. So the cheek is blanched by fear, i. e., by the withdrawal of the blood, which leaves it white.
And sin’s black dye seems blanched by age to virtue. Dryden.
Striking her cliff, the storm confirms her power; The waves but whiten her triumphant shore. Prior.