quash

present singular third person quashes · participle present quashing · participle past quashed · past quashed

1. To defeat decisively, to suppress.

   The army quashed the rebellion.

   3 more examples

   Contrition is apt to quash or allay all worldly grief.

   a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number)”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831, →OCLC

   Anne that she had been perfectly right in her proceedings, since, by quashing all idle hopes, both parties would see the necessity of conquering their foolish passion.

   1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 269

   In an early scene with her father, Alma is shown rebelling against the staid, petty and occasionally vicious life of Glorious Hill, Mississippi; her father quashes her cruelly, but it is established that Alma has it in her to defy convention.

   1976 December 25, Robert Chesley, “New York's "Nightingale" Does No Justice to Williams' Play”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 26, page 16

2. obsoleteTo crush or dash to pieces.

   The whales / Against sharp rocks, like reeling vessels, quashed, / Though huge as mountains, are in pieces dashed.

   1645, Edmund Waller, The Battle Of The Summer Islands

3. lawTo void or suppress (a subpoena, decision, etc.).

   In the case of an appeal against conviction the Court shall, if they allow the appeal, quash the conviction.

   1968, Parliament of the United Kingdom, “Section 2(2)”, in Criminal Appeal Act 1968^(Criminal Appeal Act 1968), page 2