The process of rapidly cooling heated metal, glass, or other material by immersion in a liquid, usually water or oil, in order to harden or set its structure.
After forging the axe head, the blacksmith gave it a quick quench in oil.
A sudden loss of superconductivity in a superconducting magnet or circuit, causing it to become resistive and heat up.
The experiment had to be halted when a quench occurred in one of the accelerator's main magnets.