• IPA: /blɑːntʃ/, /blæntʃ/

blanch (blanches, present participle blanching; past and past participle blanched)

1. (intransitive) To grow or become white

   His cheek blanched with fear.

   The rose blanches in the sun.

2. (transitive) To take the color out of, and make white; to bleach

   to blanch linen

   Age has blanched his hair.

3. (transitive, cooking) To cook by dipping briefly into boiling water, then directly into cold water.
4. (transitive) To whiten, for example the surface of meat, by plunging into boiling water and afterwards into cold, so as to harden the surface and retain the juices
5. (transitive) To bleach by excluding the light, for example the stalks or leaves of plants, by earthing them up or tying them together
6. (transitive) To make white by removing the skin of, for example by scalding

   to blanch almonds

7. (transitive) To give a white lustre to (silver, before stamping, in the process of coining)
8. (tntransitive) To cover (sheet iron) with a coating of tin.
9. (transitive, figuratively) To give a favorable appearance to; to whitewash; to whiten;

   Synonyms: palliate

   • c. 1680, John Tillotson, The indispensable necessity of the knowledge of the Holy Scripture

     Blanch over the blackest and most absurd things.

• French: blanchir
• German: erbleichen
• Russian: бледне́ть

• French: blanchir
• Russian: бели́ть

• French: blanchir, monder
• Russian: бланширова́ть

• blanch holding

blanch (blanches, present participle blanching; past and past participle blanched)

1. To avoid, as from fear; to evade; to leave unnoticed.
   • 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: Printed by W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, OCLC 1086746628 ↗:

     Ifs and ands to qualify words of treason; whereby every man might express his malice, and blanch his danger.

   • 1624-39, Sir Henry Wotton, Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (published 1651), page 343 ↗

     I suppose you will not blanch Paris in your way.

2. To cause to turn aside or back.

   to blanch a deer

3. To use evasion.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Counsel

     Books will speak plain, when counsellors blanch.

1. A female given name, a less common spelling of Blanche.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

     , Scene 1:

     That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch, / Is near to England: look upon the years / Of Lewis the Dauphin and the lovely maid. / If lusty love should go in quest of beauty, / Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?