Crossword clues for quenching
quenching
- Suppress or crush completely
- Cool by plunging into cold water
- Electronics suppress (sparking) when the current is cut off in an inductive circuit, or suppress (an oscillation or discharge) in a component or device
- Physics reduce the degree of (luminescence or phosphorescence) in (excited molecules or a material) by adding a suitable substance
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Quench \Quench\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Quenched; p. pr. & vb. n. Quenching.] [OE. quenchen, AS. cwencan in [=a]cwencan, to extinguish utterly, causative of cwincan, [=a]cwincan, to decrease, disappear; cf. AS. cw[=i]nan, [=a]cw[=i]nan, to waste or dwindle away.]
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To extinguish; to overwhelm; to make an end of; -- said of flame and fire, of things burning, and figuratively of sensations and emotions; as, to quench flame; to quench a candle; to quench thirst, love, hate, etc.
Ere our blood shall quench that fire.
--Shak.The supposition of the lady's death Will quench the wonder of her infamy.
--Shak. -
To cool suddenly, as heated steel, in tempering.
Syn: To extinguish; still; stifle; allay; cool; check.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context physics English) The extinction of any of several physical properties. 2 The rapid cooling of a hot metal object, by placing it in a liquid, in order to harden it. vb. (present participle of quench English)
WordNet
n. the act of extinguishing; causing to stop burning; "the extinction of the lights" [syn: extinction, extinguishing]
Wikipedia
In materials science, quenching is the rapid cooling of a workpiece to obtain certain material properties. A type of heat treating, quenching prevents undesired low-temperature processes, such as phase transformations, from occurring. It does this by reducing the window of time during which these undesired reactions are both thermodynamically favorable, and kinetically accessible; for instance, quenching can reduce the crystal grain size of both metallic and plastic materials, increasing their hardness.
In metallurgy, quenching is most commonly used to harden steel by introducing martensite, in which case the steel must be rapidly cooled through its eutectoid point, the temperature at which austenite becomes unstable. In steel alloyed with metals such as nickel and manganese, the eutectoid temperature becomes much lower, but the kinetic barriers to phase transformation remain the same. This allows quenching to start at a lower temperature, making the process much easier. High speed steel also has added tungsten, which serves to raise kinetic barriers and give the illusion that the material has been cooled more rapidly than it really has. Even cooling such alloys slowly in air has most of the desired effects of quenching.
Extremely rapid cooling can prevent the formation of all crystal structure, resulting in amorphous metal or "metallic glass".
If the percentage of carbon is less than 0.4 percent, quenching is not possible.
Quenching refers to any process which decreases the fluorescence intensity of a given substance. A variety of processes can result in quenching, such as excited state reactions, energy transfer, complex-formation and collisional quenching. As a consequence, quenching is often heavily dependent on pressure and temperature. Molecular oxygen, iodide ions and acrylamide are common chemical quenchers. The chloride ion is a well known quencher for quinine fluorescence. Quenching poses a problem for non-instant spectroscopic methods, such as laser-induced fluorescence.
Quenching is made use of in optode sensors; for instance the quenching effect of oxygen on certain ruthenium complexes allows the measurement of oxygen saturation in solution. Quenching is the basis for Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) assays. Quenching and dequenching upon interaction with a specific molecular biological target is the basis for activatable optical contrast agents for molecular imaging.
In pollution scrubbers, sometimes hot exhaust gas is quenched, or cooled by water sprays, before entering the scrubber proper. Hot gases (those above ambient temperature) are often cooled to near the saturation level. If not cooled, the hot gas stream can evaporate a large portion of the scrubbing liquor, adversely affecting collection efficiency and damaging scrubber internal parts. If the gases entering the scrubber are too hot, some liquid droplets may evaporate before they have a chance to contact pollutants in the exhaust stream, and others may evaporate after contact, causing captured particles to become reentrained. In some cases, quenching can actually save money. Cooling the gases reduces the temperature and, therefore, the volume of gases, permitting the use of less expensive construction materials and a smaller scrubber vessel and fan.
Usage examples of "quenching".
A demon fire that burns toward Ermora Yields to their quenching A melded child of their making is born to rule the dragon To bring harmony in clasped hands.
The cloak had not put out the fire entirely, though, and quenching the flames that sprang up here and there had entailed a great deal of excitement and rushing about, in the course of which Orrie McCallum was misplaced, toddled off, and fell into the groundhog kiln, where he was foundmany frantic minutes laterby Rollo.
South End of Bahr Assad Tabaqah Air Base, Syria Thursday, 9 March 1995 1130 Hours, Local While Newman and Samir were quenching their thirst and avoiding the Syrian Interior Ministry police in Dayr Az Zawr, General Komulakov and most of his combined force of retired KGB Department V thugs and PFLP terrorists were enjoying the relative luxury of a Syrian Air Force hangar at the military installation protecting the hydroelectric dam at the south end of nearby Lake Assad.
Margarita was ready to scratch my eyes out if I could not prove my fidelity, but I satisfied her by quenching on her the fires Armelline and the punch had kindled.
I went to bed with a great thirst for revenge, I fell asleep thinking of it, and I awoke with the resolution of quenching it.
It was a way of quenching their thirst, to pick the small, juicy bilberries.
Such is the glorious copartnership, that shall tear down the distilleries and brewhouses, uproot the vineyards, shatter the cider-presses, ruin the tea and coffee trade, and, finally monopolize the whole business of quenching thirst.
She imagined herself a belated traveller, a poor girl, an outcast, quenching her thirst at the wayside brook, her little packet of cresses doing duty for a bundle of clothes.
One can take the temper from fine metal by heating it and allowing it to cool without quenching.
He could smell the clean hot scent of burning charcoal from the big shed up ahead of them, hot metal, sneeze-making cinders, the heavy frying smell of the oil bath used for quenching and tempering.
There was a loud hissing and a large downward puff of steam and for a moment the Mouser thought his worst dreads had been realized, for an angry squirt of water from the quenching point struck Fafhrd in the neck.
The freighter hit the berm, quenching the white-hot metal as it plowed through a hundred cubic meters of earth.
It was hot, with a smell of scorched metal, glowing stone, and heated wood, oil from the quenching bath and the dusty scent of dry gritty rock beneath her feet.
The smells were of hot oil from the quenching bath, burning charcoal, scorched metal, sweat.
Rather oddly, there was a small furnace in the cell, a quenching bath, two small anvils, several hammers, many other tools for working metals, as well as a small store of precious and workaday metals themselves.