We heard from a fellow looking for the right word to describe the silencing and stopping of an uprising. He was torn between quell and squelch, but we came up with a few other terms, too. Let's take a look.

To quell is to overwhelm completely and reduce wholly to submission, to inactivity, or to passivity. It may be used in respect to people, to animals, or to things, even immaterial things. You might quell rioters, fighting dogs, and yes, even an uprising.

Squelch has a slightly different application. Although Americans use squelch to mean "completely suppress" or "silence" (as in his spirit could never be squelched), speakers of British English are more likely to use squelch in other senses: "to drop on something with a crushing force;" "to fall with a squelch, to make squelching sounds;" or "to walk or tread heavily in water or on wet ground."

When it comes to uprisings and rebellions, quash might be as appropriate a word choice as quell. Quash is used for any summary and decisive extinction or subduing (such as quashing hopes, or quashing an indictment).

Are you thinking you can't suppress a rebellion without a word containing the letter q? Quash that thought. The q-less crush indicates the utter destruction of effectiveness by heavy ruthless pressure and force that smashes resistance. The equally q-less suppress is used to suggest rendering something ineffective or nonexistent by the power of governmental, legalistic, or social pressure.