staunch🔊

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

(by extension) Impermeable to air or other gases; airtight. +

Strongly built; also, in good or strong condition.

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

(figuratively) Dependable, loyal, reliable, trustworthy.

(figuratively, chiefly hunting) Of a hunting dog: that can be depended on to pick up the scent of, or to mark, game.

(figuratively, obsolete) Cautious, restrained.

(figuratively) Stubborn, intransigent.

(obsolete) That which stanches or checks a flow.

(specifically, archaic) A plant or substance which stops the flow of blood; a styptic.

(obsolete) An act of stanching or stopping.

(mining) Suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused by firedamp. +

A floodgate by which water is accumulated, for floating a boat over a shallow part of a stream by its release; also, a dam or lock in a river.