blanch

Meaning

Verb

• To grow or become white
• To take the color out of, and make white; to bleach
• To cook by dipping briefly into boiling water, then directly into cold water.
• 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
• To bleach by excluding the light, for example the stalks or leaves of plants, by earthing them up or tying them together
• To make white by removing the skin of, for example by scalding
• To give a white lustre to (silver, before stamping, in the process of coining)
• To cover (sheet iron) with a coating of tin.
• To give a favorable appearance to; to whitewash; to whiten;
• To avoid, as from fear; to evade; to leave unnoticed.
• To cause to turn aside or back.
• To use evasion.

Origin

• From Middle English blaunchen, from Old French blanchir, from Old French blanc ("white"), from Late Latin, Vulgar Latin *blancus, from Proto-Germanic *blankaz ("bright, shining, blinding, white"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- ("to shine").
• Cognate with blench through Proto-Indo-European, whence other etymology of blanch.
• Variant of blench, of same Proto-Indo-European origin.