See Also: Herbal medicine (botanical medicine, herbology, phytomedicine)(health)
blanch(medicine)
blanch(2)(dictionary)
Blanch(recipes)
blanch(1)(dictionary)
blanch(dictionary)
BLANCH FIRMES(law)
Medicine Lodge Memorial Hospital- Medicine Lodge(health)
Orthomolecular medicine (orthomolecular nutritional medicine, orthomolecular therapy)(health)
medicine(2)(dictionary)

blanch (medicine)


blanch


1. To take the colour out of, and make white; to bleach; as, to blanch linen; age has blanched his hair.

2. <botany> To bleach by excluding the light, as the stalks or leaves of plants, by earthing them up or tying them together.

3. To make white by removing the skin of, as by scalding; as, to blanch almonds. To whiten, as the surface of meat, by plunging into boiling water and afterwards into cold, so as to harden the surface and retain the juices.

4. To give a white luster to (silver, before stamping, in the process of coining).

5. To cover (sheet iron) with a coating of tin.

6. To whiten; to give a favorable appearance to; to whitewash; to palliate. "Blanch over the blackest and most absurd things." (Tillotson)

Synonym: To Blanch, Whiten.

To whiten is the generic term, denoting, to render white; as, to whiten the walls of a room. Usually (though not of necessity) this is supposed to be done by placing some white colouring matter in or upon the surface of the object in question. To blanch is to whiten by the removal of colouring matter; as, to blanch linen. So the cheek is blanched by fear, i. E, by the withdrawal of the blood, which leaves it white.

Origin: OE. Blanchen, blaunchen, F. Blanchir, fr. Blanc white. See Blank.

<chemical> Ore, not in masses, but mixed with other minerals.

Source: Websters Dictionary