scotch
verb- scotch something
to stop something from happening; to take action to end something 阻止；挫败；平息；终止 Plans for a merger have been scotched. 合并计划停止实行。 Rumours that he had fled the country were promptly scotched by his wife. 他的妻子立刻驳斥了他已逃到国外的谣言。
Oxford Collocations DictionaryScotch is used with these nouns as the object:- myth
- rumour
Word Originearly 17th cent. (as a noun): of unknown origin; perhaps related to the verbskate. The sense ‘render temporarily harmless’ is based on an emendation of Shakespeare's Macbeth iii. ii. 13 as “We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it”, originally understood as a use of scotch ‘to cut or score skin’; the sense ‘put an end to’ (early 19th cent.) results from the influence on this of the notion of wedging or blocking something so as to render it inoperative.