staunch

Not permitting water or some other liquid to escape or penetrate; watertight.

Yet if I knevv, / VVhat Hoope ſhould hold vs ſtaunch from edge to edge / Ath'vvorld [of the world]: I vvould perſue it.

Our Proviſions held out vvell, our Ship vvas ſtaunch, and our Crevv all in good Health; but vve lay in the utmoſt diſtreſs for VVater.

Not permitting water or some other liquid to escape or penetrate; watertight.

[T]vvas very difficult to procure a Bladder ſmall and fine enough for that litle Cylinder; and that one, vvhich at length vve procured, vvould not continue ſtanch for many Tryals, but vvould after a vvhile part vvith a litle Air in the vvell exhauſted Receiver, vvhen tvvas clog'd vvith the utmoſt VVeight it could ſuſtain: but vvhilſt it continued ſtanch vve made one fair Tryal vvith it, […]

Strongly built; also, in good or strong condition.

Hovv goodly, and hovv to be vviſht vvere ſuch an obedient unanimity as this, vvhat a fine conformity vvould it ſtarch us all into? doubtles a ſtanch and ſolid peece of frame-vvork, as any January could freeze together.

[T]he house a stanch good old building, and what was singular, some of the roomes floor'd dove-tail-wise without a nail, exactly close. One of the closetts is parquetted with plaine deale, set in diamond, exceeding stanch and pretty.

Staying true to one's aims or principles; firm, resolute, unswerving.

Without our staunch front line the enemy would have split the regiment.

VVe may commend / A Gentlemans modeſty, manners, and fine language, / […] / Yet, though he obſerue, and vvaſte his ſtate vpon vs, / If he be ſtanch and bid not for the ſtocke / That vve vvere borne to traffick vvith; the truth is / VVe care not for his company.

Dependable, loyal, reliable, trustworthy.

He’s been a staunch supporter of mine through every election.

[T]here ain't a stauncher-hearted gal going, or I'd have cut her throat three months ago.

Alternative spelling of stanch.

I will couer the depe vpon him, I will ſtaunch his floudes, and the greate waters ſhalbe reſtrayned.

He that has not uſurp'd the name of man, / Does all, and deems too little, all he can, / T' aſſuage the throbbings of the feſter'd part, / And ſtaunch the bleedings of a broken heart; […]

That which stanches or checks a flow.

That which stanches or checks a flow.

An act of stanching or stopping.

Synonym of afterdamp (“suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused by firedamp”).