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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
quell
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
allay/quell sb’s misgivings (=stop someone from being worried)
▪ He tried to allay her misgivings about the flight, with little success.
quell a disturbanceformal (= stop one)
▪ Extra police were called to quell the disturbances.
quell a riot (=use force to stop it)
▪ The police marched in to quell the riots.
quell unrest (=stop it)
▪ Troops were brought in to quell the unrest.
quell violence (=stop violent behaviour)
▪ The National Guard was brought in to quell the violence.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
disturbance
▪ Extra police were called to quell the disturbance when, without provocation, Williamson punched Mr Coulthard.
▪ Or at least we would have had action to quell disturbances earlier.
▪ Extra police were called to quell the disturbance.
▪ As the measures of repression by the government grew, it became necessary to use the army to quell strikes and disturbances.
▪ According to Western press reports five people were killed and 200 injured as riot police tried to quell disturbances in Dhaka.
riot
▪ It was said that armed mounted troopers were grouped outside the oval to quell a possible riot.
▪ To quell a riot, she kept a sympathetic hand on the manager's arm while the young boy repeated her instructions.
■ VERB
try
▪ The great armies of the world have tried to quell these people.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ An anti-government riot was promptly quelled by soldiers using guns and teargas.
▪ Extra police were called in to quell the disturbance.
▪ Police fired tear gas to quell the rioting.
▪ They hope to quell public anxiety about offshore oil drilling.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Apart from these tender moments, however, I struggled to quell a pervasive sense of emptiness inside.
▪ But it did little to quell qualms among the committee members, particularly Republicans.
▪ Equally obviously, Rough Trade were determined to quell these rumours.
▪ Her kinship with the respected Goldie apparently quells any nagging doubts.
▪ Indigestion could be quelled with a simple magnesia tablet, thousands of which she chewed in her lifetime.
▪ Run, quelling any thought of disobedience.
▪ The figures did not quell Cabinet disagreements on the issue.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Quell

Quell \Quell\, n. Murder. [Obs.]
--Shak.

Quell

Quell \Quell\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Quelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Quelling.] [See Quail to cower.]

  1. To die. [Obs.]

    Yet he did quake and quaver, like to quell.
    --Spenser.

  2. To be subdued or abated; to yield; to abate. [R.]

    Winter's wrath begins to quell.
    --Spenser.

Quell

Quell \Quell\, v. t. [OE. quellen to kill, AS. cwellan, causative of cwelan to die; akin to OHG. quellen to torment, Icel. kvelja. See Quail to cower.]

  1. To take the life of; to kill. [Obs.]
    --Spenser.

    The ducks cried as [if] men would them quelle.
    --Chaucer.

  2. To overpower; to subdue; to put down.

    The nation obeyed the call, rallied round the sovereign, and enabled him to quell the disaffected minority.
    --Macaulay.

    Northward marching to quell the sudden revolt.
    --Longfellow.

  3. To quiet; to allay; to pacify; to cause to yield or cease; as, to quell grief; to quell the tumult of the soul.

    Much did his words the gentle lady quell.
    --Spenser.

    Syn: to subdue; crush; overpower; reduce; put down; repress; suppress; quiet; allay; calm; pacify.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
quell

Old English cwellan "to kill, murder, execute," from Proto-Germanic *kwaljanan (cognates: Old English cwelan "to die," cwalu "violent death;" Old Saxon quellian "to torture, kill;" Old Norse kvelja "to torment;" Middle Dutch quelen "to vex, tease, torment;" Old High German quellan "to suffer pain," German quälen "to torment, torture"), from PIE root *gwele- (1) "to throw, reach," with extended sense of "to pierce" (cognates: Armenian kelem "I torture;" Old Church Slavonic zali "pain;" Lithuanian galas "end," gela "agony," gelti "to sting;" see ballistics). Milder sense of "suppress, extinguish" developed by c.1300. Related: Quelled; quelling.

Wiktionary
quell

Etymology 1 n. A subduing. vb. 1 (context obsolete transitive English) To kill. (9th-19th c.) 2 (context transitive English) To subdue, to put down; to silence or force (someone) to submit. (from 10th c.) 3 (context transitive English) To suppress, to put an end to (something); to extinguish. (from 14th c.) Etymology 2

n. 1 A source, especially a spring. 2 An emotion or sensation which rises suddenly.

WordNet
quell
  1. v. suppress or crush completely; "squelch any sign of dissent"; "quench a rebellion" [syn: squelch, quench]

  2. overcome or allay; "quell my hunger" [syn: stay, appease]

Wikipedia
Quell (video game)

Quell is an iOS and Android game developed by Fallen Tree Games and released on August 7, 2010.

Quell (wearable)

Quell is a wearable device, manufactured by Neurometrix, that claims to offer relief from chronic pain without the use of drugs. Quell is an FDA approved band worn on the calf and uses Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) technology. Neurometrix reference a small study, funded by the company, to claim efficacy in chronic pain; however, evidence is currently limited

Usage examples of "quell".

Even the news that the Yorktown, after quelling the fires and resuming fleet speed, had been torpedoed in a second attack, was again ablaze and listing, and might be abandoned, could be taken in stride.

Master Algologist Dephliny muttered, adjusting the microswitch implanted above his left occipital arch to quell the shaking in his right hand.

But here his voice was lost in the joyous acclamations of his followers who shouted amain until the Duchess quelled them with lifted hand.

He sat on the floor with his knees drawn up to his chest, watching with bafflement as Merry-Death grabbed a fleecy robe from a wall hook, sliced him a quelling glare, unlocked the door, and shot away from him, faster than an arrow from a crossbow.

Angelique waited outside the prison with a crowd of mulattoes and bekes who had come to watch the executions, and she tried to quell the panic in her breast.

She did her best to quell the anxiety rippling through her as she took her seat beside Bitsy, but it was hard.

Captain of Scouts to the mighty High Chief Graakaak, struggled to quell his cloacal quaking and give no sign that he saw the demons.

Your job was to quell the impulse to bang their stupid fat heads together, to ignore the affronted speeches of dodgy self-justification, to get them to stop shouting and to get them off the street.

A couple of them were unhappy about leaving Kibbo and Foster behind, but Ntoko quelled their dissent with a few gruff words about how the guys would want the platoon to reach the spaceport.

Quelling any inclination toward lenience, Ranulf forced himself to move.

Ashby, pressed by a superior British force, had been compelled to yield before it, and this intelligence left our partisan no moment of respite after quelling the commotions on the Pedee, before he was required to return and cover the country which had so long been indebted to his vigilance for protection.

Yet he could not stand by, even though he had schooled himself to do so, tried to quell the pendular motion of self-interest and duty that had plagued him throughout the morning.

Hawkril protested, from somewhere beneath Tshamarra, but Blackgult waved a quelling hand.

She froze, quelling her nausea, stifling her urge to jump up and gun McKendrick down.

I, William Seward, captain of this lushed up hashhead subway, will quell the Lock Ness monster with rotenone and cowboy the white whale.