The Collaborative International Dictionary
Blanch \Blanch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blanched; p. pr. & vb. n. Blanching.] [OE. blanchen, blaunchen, F. blanchir, fr. blanc white. See Blank, a.]
To take the color out of, and make white; to bleach; as, to blanch linen; age has blanched his hair.
(Gardening) To bleach by excluding the light, as the stalks or leaves of plants, by earthing them up or tying them together.
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(Confectionery & Cookery)
To make white by removing the skin of, as by scalding; as, to blanch almonds.
To whiten, as the surface of meat, by plunging into boiling water and afterwards into cold, so as to harden the surface and retain the juices.
To give a white luster to (silver, before stamping, in the process of coining.).
To cover (sheet iron) with a coating of tin.
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Fig.: To whiten; to give a favorable appearance to; to whitewash; to palliate.
Blanch over the blackest and most absurd things.
--Tillotson.Syn: To Blanch, Whiten.
Usage: To whiten is the generic term, denoting, to render white; as, to whiten the walls of a room. Usually (though not of necessity) this is supposed to be done by placing some white coloring matter in or upon the surface of the object in question. To blanch is to whiten by the removal of coloring matter; as, to blanch linen. So the cheek is blanched by fear, i. e., by the withdrawal of the blood, which leaves it white.
Wiktionary
1 lacking complexion or color 2 bleached v
(en-past of: blanch)
WordNet
adj. ash-colored or anemic looking from illness or emotion; "a face turned ashen"; "the invalid's blanched cheeks"; "tried to speak with bloodless lips"; "a face livid with shock"; "lips...livid with the hue of death"- Mary W. Shelley; "lips white with terror"; "a face white with rage" [syn: ashen, bloodless, livid, white]
(especially of plants) developed without chlorophyll by being deprived of light; "etiolated celery" [syn: etiolate, etiolated]
Usage examples of "blanched".
Has grown and grown, and with her mellow shade Has blanched my thornless thoughts to her own hue, And even now is budding into blossom, Which never shall bear fruit, but inward still Resorb its vital nectar, self-contained, And leave no living copies of its beauty To after ages.
For one awful instant they were suspended above disaster, the keel of the boat riding the force of the torrent like a reversed magnet, unloosed, unmoored, out of control, the sharp spray in their faces, Henry shouting out encouragement to the straining motors, grinning Jalong in the bow with a plastic bucket bailing like mad, the bouncing Copelands trying not to glance too often at one another with the blanched appeal of stricken airline passengers, the fragile longboat, as if responding to psychic entreaty, moved forward an inch, another inch, then, in one sweet dizzying lift, rose up and over the crest of the falls onto a slick moving sheet of unruffled stream, and they looked around at themselves and they laughed.
At the mere mention of the backbreaking labor, Kalliana blanched and looked over at Troy.
Behind it was the blanched immensity of the plain, of the lonely desert from which Domini and Androvsky had come to face this barbaric stir of life.
As Gryllus coolly watched, he blanched, and suddenly whirling, ran out of the room.
When embarrassed she would blush to the roots of that lemon hair and when she was frightened she blanched to the point of transparency.
He was very tall, with hair the golden color of blanched witchgrass in late summer that fell down to below his waist in length.
A blanket of small golden flowers, thousands of them nodding in an evening breeze, spread out in a broad circumference, standing in stark contrast to the blanched witchgrass around them.
The other dignitaries stiffened, and the painfully young ensign beside Anderson blanched.
The two lance corporals blanched and Top Myer stuck his head in the doorway.
When she dropped it on a mat, there were exclamations of surprise, and Jondalar blanched.
He pulled it aside and Parsons, veteran medical man that he was, blanched nevertheless.
The servant blanched, took the proffered instrument, and led the way down the now rugless marble floor, past windows where no draperies now hung.
Lunzie took one look at the fine print on the plas-sheet under the hologram and blanched.
Her own checks had blanched, and blue sparks glinted in her eyes, hot as the heart of a fame.