Blench - plus, what lookups are trending now?

[Merriam-Webster]( WORD OF THE DAY [February 4, 2018](#none) blench [Audio pronunciation]( verb | BLENCH Definition : to draw back or turn aside from lack of courage : [flinch]( Scroll down for more about blench TRENDING NOW: [redaction]( [spurious]( [malfeasance]( [pissant]( [SEE ALL [>]]( PEOPLE ARE READING # [The Strange Route from 'Cadet' to 'Cad']( # [12 Words to Know for the Winter Olympics]( # ['Outsize' vs. 'Outsized']( # [6 Words for Unbelievable Stories]( WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE [Words of Snow and Ice Quiz]( A selection of words from the chillier parts of the lexicon. [PLAY NOW]( Nailed this quiz? We have plenty more to try! [TAKE ME THERE [>]]( Did You Know? If a stranger approaches you in a dark alley, it might cause you to blench. Do you flinch or turn white? Actually, you could do both, and both would be considered blenching because there are two separate verbs spelled "blench" in English. The blench that means "to flinch" derives from blencan, an Old English word meaning "to deceive." The [blench]( meaning "to turn white" is an alteration of [blanch](, from the French adjective blanc ("white"). Clues to which meaning is intended can often be found in context. The "flinch" use, for example, is strictly intransitive and often followed by from or at ("blenched from the sight of blood"; "didn’t blench at the sound of thunder"). The "whiten" use, meanwhile, can be intransitive ("his skin blenched with terror") or transitive ("the cold blenched her lips"). Examples of BLENCH "I blenched when my son first introduced me to the initials [IRL](, meaning In Real Life, as opposed to the online world where he and his generation spend so much of their time." — Allison Pearson, The Daily Telegraph (London), 26 Apr. 2017 "If you're a responsible teacher, you talk to your students about money. You say: most novelists earn around £5,000 a year from their writing. You watch them blench. You say: so if you're going to do this, you have to think about how you're going to support yourself." — Naomi Alderman, quoted in The Guardian, 15 Mar. 2014 Name That Synonym Fill in the blanks to complete a synonym of blench: s _ _ in _ h. [VIEW THE ANSWER [>]]( USAGE NOTES 'Free Rein' or 'Free Reign'? The phrase does not make you king or queen for the day. [FIND OUT [>]]( MORE WORD FUN: [WORD GAMES [>]]( [TRENDING NOW [>]]( [WORDS AT PLAY [>]]( FOLLOW US: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( [Pinterest]( SHARE: [Facebook][Facebook]( [Twitter][Twitter]( [View this email in a web browser]( You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive the Merriam-Webster Word of the Day. [Unsubscribe from Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day]( [Manage your subscription settings]( Merriam-Webster, Inc. 47 Federal Street P.O. Box 281 Springfield, MA 01102 [www.merriam-webster.com](