Quell Meaning
/kwɛl/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo subdue, put down, or silence (someone or something); to force (someone) to submit.
verbTo suppress, to put an end to (something); to extinguish.
Sentence Examples
What passion cannot music raise and quell?
The authorities sent in troops to quell the riot.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The security forces used tear gas to ____ the violent crowd, restoring order.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The police were called in to ____ the disturbance that had broken out near the stadium.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English quellen, from Old English cwellan (“to kill”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwalljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwaljaną (“to make die; kill”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-. 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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The nation obeyed the call, rallied round the sovereign, and enabled him to quell the disaffected minority."
— 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
"Northward marching to quell the sudden revolt."
— 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:
"However, after quelling Burnley's threat, Southampton failed to build on their growing danger culminating in Tadic's missed penalty."
— 2014 December 13, Mandeep Sanghera, “Burnley 1-0 Southampton”, in BBC Sport:
"Like barbarous miſcreants, they quelled Virgins vnto death, […]"
— 1625, Yvo of Narbena, Matthew Paris, “Part of an Epistle Written by One Yvo of Narbena vnto the Archbishop of Burdeaux, Containing the Confession of an Englishman, as Touching the Barbarous Demeanour of the Tartars, which had Liued Long among Them, and was Drawne along Perforce with Them in Their Expedition against Hungarie: Recorded by Matthew Paris in the Year [of] Our Lord 1243”, in [Samuel] Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes. […], 3rd part, London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, 1st book, pages 63–64:
"Well prov'd in that same day, when Jove those gyants quelled."
— 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The security forces used tear gas to ____ the violent crowd, restoring order.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The police were called in to ____ the disturbance that had broken out near the stadium.