Quell is a verb that means to put an end to something.
Our word of the day comes from the Old English word cwellan (KWELL an) which means ‘to kill.’ Its linguistic offspring quell was absorbed into English in the 13th century with a less lethal definition. It simply means to stop or end something.
When I heard that racket coming from the living room, my immediate impulse was to scream for somebody to quell it. I soon realized I was demanding that people turn off the latest album by my favorite band.
