Library / English Dictionary

DRENCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover with liquid; pour liquid onto

Example:

souse water on his hot face

Synonyms:

douse; dowse; drench; soak; sop; souse

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "drench" is one way to...):

wet (cause to become wet)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "drench"):

brine (soak in brine)

bedraggle; draggle (make wet and dirty, as from rain)

bate (soak in a special solution to soften and remove chemicals used in previous treatments)

ret (place (flax, hemp, or jute) in liquid so as to promote loosening of the fibers from the woody tissue)

flush; sluice (irrigate with water from a sluice)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They drench the cloth with water and alcohol

Sense 2

Meaning:

Permeate or impregnate

Example:

The war drenched the country in blood

Synonyms:

drench; imbrue

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "drench" is one way to...):

impregnate; saturate (infuse or fill completely)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody with something

Sentence example:

The waters drench the area

Sense 3

Meaning:

Force to drink

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "drench" is one way to...):

cater; ply; provide; supply (give what is desired or needed, especially support, food or sustenance)

Cause:

drink; imbibe (take in liquids)

Domain category:

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Drench or submerge or be drenched or submerged

Example:

The tsunami swamped every boat in the harbor

Synonyms:

drench; swamp

Classified under:

Verbs of raining, snowing, thawing, thundering

Hypernyms (to "drench" is one way to...):

flood (cover with liquid, usually water)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

I was prepared for the hot rain of tears; only I wanted them to be shed on my breast: now a senseless floor has received them, or your drenched handkerchief.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I was drenched and terrified, and fell instantly back into my old position, whereupon the coracle seemed to find her head again and led me as softly as before among the billows.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De Quincey’s description of his dreams and sensations, he had drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the same effects.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He took it from my hand, held it up, and surveyed the bed, all blackened and scorched, the sheets drenched, the carpet round swimming in water.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

While I walked under the dripping orange-trees of my wet garden, and amongst its drenched pomegranates and pine-apples, and while the refulgent dawn of the tropics kindled round me—I reasoned thus, Jane—and now listen; for it was true Wisdom that consoled me in that hour, and showed me the right path to follow.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Winter snows, I thought, had drifted through that void arch, winter rains beaten in at those hollow casements; for, amidst the drenched piles of rubbish, spring had cherished vegetation: grass and weed grew here and there between the stones and fallen rafters.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)