quell

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwɛl/

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• Rhymes: -ɛl

Etymology 1

From Middle English quellen, from Old English cwellan (“to kill”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwalljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwaljaną (“to make die; kill”). Cognate with German quälen (“to torment; agonise; smite”), Swedish kvälja (“to torment”), Icelandic kvelja (“to torture; torment”). Compare also Old Armenian կեղ (keł, “sore, ulcer”), Old Church Slavonic жаль (žalĭ, “pain”). See also kill, which may be its doublet.

Verb

quell (third-person singular simple present quells, present participle quelling, simple past and past participle quelled)

1. (transitive) To subdue, put down, or silence (someone or something); to force (someone) to submit.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 1, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

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

   • 1858 October 16, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, in The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:

     Northward marching to quell the sudden revolt.

2. (transitive) To suppress, to put an end to (something); to extinguish.

   to quell grief

   to quell the tumult of the soul

   • 2014 December 13, Mandeep Sanghera, “Burnley 1-0 Southampton”, in BBC Sport‎:

     However, after quelling Burnley's threat, Southampton failed to build on their growing danger culminating in Tadic's missed penalty.

3. (obsolete, transitive) To kill.
   • 1582, R[ichard] H[akluyt], compiler, Divers Voyages Touching the Discouerie of America, and the Ilands adiacent vnto the Same, , London: for Thomas Woodcocke, , →OCLC:

     Like barbarous miscreants, they quelled virgins vnto death.

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Well prov'd in that same day, when Jove those gyants quelled.

4. (obsolete, intransitive) To be subdued or abated; to diminish.
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: , London: Hugh Singleton, , →OCLC; republished as The Shepheardes Calender , London: Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, , 1586, →OCLC:

     Winter's wrath begins to quell.

5. To die.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book VII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Yet he did quake and quaver, like to quell.

Conjugation

Noun

quell (plural quells)

1. A subduing.
   • 1903, Knowledge: A Monthly Record of Science:

     The quell of the rebellion raised Justinian to the acme of power.

   • 1978, Shiu Heng Chook, Chiang Kai-shek Close-up: A Personal View:

     Hu had been supportive of Chiang's role throughout the northern expedition and the quell of southern rebellion.

   • 1994, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. international drug control policy: recent experience, future options : seminar proceedings, Government Printing Office, →ISBN:

     The consequences have not been significant in terms of the quell of any of the three drugs into the United States.

   • 1998, Mirza Arshad Ali Beg, Democracy Displaced in Pakistan: Case History of Disasters of Social Pollution:

     Each Martial Law was marked by the quell of civil liberties or human rights.

   • 2013, Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire, UK: Scholastic:

     But to make things even worse, this is the year of the Seventy-fifth Hunger Games, and that means it's also a Quarter Quell. They occur every twenty-five years, marking the anniversary of the districts' defeat with over-the-top celebrations and, for extra fun, some miserable twist for the tributes.

   • 2014, Markham J. Geller, Melammu: The Ancient World in an Age of Globalization, epubli, →ISBN, page 136:

     An example can be found in the data about the campaigns of Aššur-bān-apli against Arab tribes after the quell of the revolt of Šamaš-šumukīn.

Translations

Related terms

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “quell”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Etymology 2

From Middle English *quelle (suggested by the verb quellen (“to well up; gush forth”)), from Old English cwylla, *cwielle (“spring; source”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwalljā (“spring, well”). Compare German Quelle.

Noun

quell (plural quells)

1. A source, especially a spring.
   • 1894, George Egerton, Discords:

     And when they had eaten, and sat resting in a grotto, he was still singing, and she was the goddess of his Muse, — the quell of living waters out of which he drew fresh strength for new lays.

   • 1969, Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, Ada, Or, Ardor, a Family Chronicle, Vintage, →ISBN:

     Other excruciations replaced her namesake's loquacious quells so completely that when, during a lucid interval, she happened to open with her weak little hand a lavabo cock for a drink of water, the tepid lymph replied in its own lingo […]

   • 2001, Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Andrea Römmele, Public Information Campaigns and Opinion Research: A Handbook for the Student and Practitioner, SAGE, →ISBN, page 82:

     The strategists had access to a wide array of private polling and information from focus groups; a quell of information stretching back over his years as a state-wide candidate and office holder.

2. An emotion or sensation which rises suddenly.
   • 2001, Zane Gates, The Cure, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 241:

     A quell of strength over took Robin with each of his words. She was about to fall apart, but Jacob was as brave as a warrior going into battle.

   • 2011, Linda Lee Chaikin, Hawaiian Crosswinds, Moody Publishers, →ISBN:

     For a moment their eyes locked, and she felt a quell of anger rise above her apprehension. Reality struck with appalling clarity, yet she could only lie down, partially drugged and untidy as she was from such rough traveling.

   • 2012, Molly Hopkins, It Happened at Boot Camp: Exclusive Novella, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     I read on. It will cost two hundred and fifty quid. I felt a quell of alarm, that's quite expensive.

Middle English

Verb

quell

1. Alternative form of quellen