blanch

verb

1. (intransitive)To grow or become white.

   “His cheek blanched with fear.”

   “The rose blanches in the sun.”

   “Nurse Cramer's face blanched and she turned to Dunbar desperately for aid.”

   “"Where is the target?" "Bearing zero-four-five, Comrade. Bearing is constant," the michman replied, "closing rapidly." Tupolev blanched. "Left full rudder, all ahead flank!"”

2. (transitive)To take the color out of, and make white; to bleach.

   “to blanch linen”

   “Age has blanched his hair.”

3. (transitive)To cook by dipping briefly into boiling water, then directly into cold water.
4. (transitive)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.
5. (transitive)To bleach by excluding light, for example the stalks or leaves of plants by earthing them up or tying them together.
6. (transitive)To make white by removing the skin of, for example by scalding.

   “to blanch almonds”

7. (transitive)To give a white lustre to (silver, before stamping, in the process of coining)
8. (intransitive)To cover (sheet iron) with a coating of tin.
9. (figuratively, transitive)To give a favorable appearance to; to whitewash; to whiten;

   “c. 1680, John Tillotson, The indispensable necessity of the knowledge of the Holy Scripture Blanch over the blackest and most absurd things.”

10. To avoid, as from fear; to evade; to leave unnoticed.

    “Ifs and ands to qualify words of treason; whereby every man might express his malice, and blanch his danger.”

    “I suppose you will not blanch Paris in your way.”

11. To cause to turn aside or back.

    “to blanch a deer”

12. To use evasion.

    “Books will speak plain, when counsellors blanch.”

name

1. A female given name from French, a less common spelling of Blanche.

   “That daughter there of Spain, the Lady Blanch, / Is near to England: look upon the years / Of Lewis the Dauphin and the lovely maid. / If lusty love should go in quest of beauty, / Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?”