From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishquellquell /kwel/ verb [transitive] formal 1 SCPPMto end a situation in which people are behaving violently or protesting, especially by using force SYN put downquell the violence/disturbance/riot etc Police used live ammunition to quell the disturbances.2 EMOTIONAL literary to reduce or stop unpleasant feelings such as fear, doubt, or worry ‘Jerry?’ she called, trying to quell the panic inside her.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
quell• Apart from these tender moments, however, I struggled to quell a pervasive sense of emptiness inside.• Her kinship with the respected Goldie apparently quells any nagging doubts.• Run, quelling any thought of disobedience.• An anti-government riot was promptly quelled by soldiers using guns and teargas.• The figures did not quell Cabinet disagreements on the issue.• They hope to quell public anxiety about offshore oil drilling.• But it did little to quell qualms among the committee members, particularly Republicans.• Extra police were called in to quell the disturbance.• Police fired tear gas to quell the rioting.• Equally obviously, Rough Trade were determined to quell these rumours.• Indigestion could be quelled with a simple magnesia tablet, thousands of which she chewed in her lifetime.quell the violence/disturbance/riot etc• After 10 days of gun battles, Federal troops were called out to quell the violence.• Extra police were called to quell the disturbance.• The police have to march in to quell the riots; when the police fail, the army.• Extra police were called to quell the disturbance when, without provocation, Williamson punched Mr Coulthard.Origin quell Old English cwellan “to kill” 