Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

QUARRE — QUESTIONED

QUARRE, for quarry, not in use.

QUARREL, n. [L. queror, to complain, that is, to cry out with a loud voice. Hence we see the primary sense is the same as brawl. The L. queror coincides in elements with to call, to bawl, to shout, and gearan, a complaint. Heb.]

1. A brawl; a petty fight or scuffle; from its noise and uproar.

2. A dispute; a contest.

On open seas their quarrels they debate.

3. A breach of friendship or concord; open variance between parties.

4. Cause of dispute.

The king’s quarrel is honorable.

5. Something that gives a right to mischief, reprisal or action.

He thought he had a good quarrel to attack him. [Not used.]

6. Objection; ill will, or reason to complain; ground of objection or dispute.

Herodias had a quarrel against him. Mark 6:19.

7. Something peevish, malicious, or disposed to make trouble. [Not used.]

QUARREL, n.

1. An arrow with a square head. [Not used unless in poetry.]

2. A pane of glass; a square. [See Quarry and Square.]

QUARREL, v.i.

1. To dispute violently or with loud and angry words; to wrangle; to scold. How odious to see husband and wife quarrel!

2. To fight; to scuffle; to contend; to squabble; used of two persons or of a small number. It is never used of armies and navies in combat. Children and servants often quarrel about trifles. Tavern-haunters sometimes quarrel over their cups.

3. To fall into variance.

Our people quarrel with obedience.

4. To find fault; to cavil.

I will not quarrel with a slight mistake.

Men at enmity with their God, quarreling with his attributes - quarreling with the being that made them, and who is constantly doing them good.

5. To disagree; to be at variance; not to be in accordance in form or essence.

Some things arise of strange and quarr’ling kind, the forepart lion, and a snake behind.

QUARREL, v.t.

1. To quarrel with.

2. To compel by a quarrel; as, to quarrel a man out of his estate or rights.

QUARRELER, n. One who quarrels, wrangles or fights.

QUARRELING, ppr. Disputing with vehemence or loud angry words; scolding; wrangling; fighting; finding fault; disagreeing.

QUARRELING, n. [supra.] Contention; dispute in angry words; breach of concord; a caviling or finding fault; disagreement.

QUARRELOUS, a. Apt or disposed to quarrel; petulant; easily provoked to enmity or contention. [Little used.]

QUARRELSOME, a. Apt to quarrel; given to brawls and contention; inclined to petty fighting; easily irritated or provoked to contest; irascible; choleric; petulant.

QUARRELSOMELY, adv. In a quarrelsome manner; with a quarrelsome temper; petulantly.

QUARRELSOMENESS, n. Disposition to engage in contention and brawls; petulance.

QUARRIED, pp. Dug from a pit or cavern.

QUARRY, n.

1. A square; as a quarry of glass. [Not in use.]

2. An arrow with a square head. [See Quarrel. Not in use.]

3. In falconry, the game which a hawk is pursuing or has killed. [Perhaps from L. quaero.]

4. Among hunters, a part of the entrails of the beast taken, given to the hounds.

QUARRY, n. [I know not whether the original sense of this word was a pit or mine, from digging, or whether the sense was a place for squaring stone. L. curro. If the sense was a pit, it may be referred to the Heb.]

1. A place, cavern or pit where stones are dug from the earth, or separated from a large mass of rocks. We generally apply the word mine to the pit from which are taken metals and coal; from quarries are taken stones for building, as marble, freestone, slate, etc.

2. In Paris, the quarries are a vast cavern under the city, several miles in extent.

QUARRY, v.i. To prey upon, as a vulture or harpy. [A low word and not much used.]

QUARRY, v.t. To dig or take from a quarry; as, to quarry marble.

QUARRYING, ppr. Digging stones from a quarry.

QUARRYMAN, n. A man who is occupied in quarrying stones.

QUART, n. quort. [L. quartus.]

1. The fourth part; a quarter. [Not in use.]

2. The fourth part of a gallon; two pints.

3. A vessel containing the fourth of a gallon.

4. A sequence of four cards in the game of picket.

QUARTAN, quort’an. [L. quartanus, the fourth.]

Designating the fourth; occurring every fourth day; as a quartan ague or fever.

QUARTAN, n.

1. An intermitting ague that occurs every fourth day, or with intermissions of seventy two hours.

2. A measure containing the fourth part of some other measure.

QUARTATION, n. In chimistry and metallurgy, the operation by which the quantity of one thing is made equal to the fourth part of another thing.

QUARTER, n. quort’er. [L. quartus, the fourth part.]

1. The fourth part; as the quarter of an hour or of a mile; one quarter of the expense. Living is a quarter dearer in the city than in the country.

2. In weight, the fourth part of a hundred pounds avoirdupois, or of 112 lb., that is, 28 lb.; as a quarter of sugar.

3. In dry measure, the fourth of a ton in weight, or eight bushels; as a quarter of wheat.

4. In astronomy, the fourth part of the moon’s period or monthly revolution; as the first quarter after the change or full.

5. A region in the hemisphere or great circle; primarily, one of the four cardinal points; as the four quarters of the globe; but used indifferently for any region or point of compass. From what quarter does the wind blow? Hence,

6. A particular region of a town, city or country; as all quarters of the city; in every quarter of the country or of the continent. Hence.

7. Usually in the plural, quarters, the place of lodging or temporary residence; appropriately, the place where officers and soldiers lodge, but applied to the lodgings of any temporary resident. He called on the general at his quarters; the place furnished good winter quarters for the troops. I saw the stranger at his quarters.

8. Proper station.

Swift to their several quarters hasten then -

Bacon uses the word in the singular. ‘Make love keep quarter.”

9. On board of ships, quarters signifies the stations or places where the officers and men are posted in action. Pipe all hands to quarters.

10. In military affairs, the remission or sparing of the life of a captive or an enemy when in one’s power; mercy granted by a conqueror to his enemy, when no longer able to defend himself. In desperate encounters, men will sometimes neither ask nor give quarter. The barbarous practice of giving no quarter to soldiers in a fortress taken by assault, is nearly obsolete.

He magnified his own clemency, now they were at his mercy, to offer them quarter for their lives, if they would give up the castle.

Lambs at the mercy of wolves much expect no quarter.

11. Treatment shown to an enemy; indulgence.

To the young, if you give tolerable quarter, you indulge them in idleness and ruin them. [Rarely used.]

12. Friendship; amity; concord. [Not in use.]

13. In the slaughter house, one limb of a quadruped with the adjoining parts; or one fourth part of the carcase of a quadruped, including a limb; as a fore quarter, or hind quarter.

14. In the menage, the quarters of a horse’s foot are the sides of the coffin, between the toe and the heel. False quarters are a cleft in the horn of the hoof, extending from the coronet to the shoe, or from top to bottom. When for any disorder, one of the quarters is cut, the horse is said to be quarter-cast.

15. In a siege, quarters are the encampment on one of the principal passages round the place besieged, to prevent relief and intercept convoys.

16. In seminaries of learning, a fourth part of the year, or three months. Tuition and board at twenty five dollars the quarter. This is a moderate quarter bill.

17. The quarter of a ship, is the part of a ship’s side which lies towards the stern, or the part between the aftmost end of the main-chains and the sides of the stern, where it is terminated by the quarter-pieces.

18. In heraldry, one of the parts or members of the first division of a coat that is divided into four parts.

On the quarter, in seamen’s language, is a point in the horizon considerably abaft the beam, but not in the direction of the stern.

Quarter-bill, among seamen, is a list containing the different stations where the officers and crew are to take post in time of action, and the names of the men assigned to each.

Quarter-cloths, long pieces of painted canvas, extended on the outside of the quarter-netting from the upper part of the gallery to the gangway.

Quarter-deck, that part of the deck of a ship which extends from the stern to the mainmast. But in some kinds of vessels, the quarter-deck does not extend to the mainmast, but is raised above the main deck.

Quarter-gallery, a sort of balcony on the quarters of a ship.

Quarter-railing, narrow molded planks, reaching from the top of the stern to the gangway, serving as a fence to the quarter-deck.

Quarter-master, in an army, an officer whose business is to attend to the quarters for the soldiers, their provisions, fuel, forage, etc.; in the navy, an officer who assists the mates in their duties, in stowing the hold, coiling the cables, attending the steerage, and keeping time by the watch glasses.

Quarter-master-general, in military affairs, is an officer whose duty is to mark the marches and encampments of an army, the head-quarters, the place for the artillery, and procure supplies of provisions and forage, etc.

1. Quarter-staff, a long staff borne by foresters and park-keepers, as a badge of office and a weapon.

2. A staff of defense.

Quarter-sessions, in England, a general court held quarterly by the justices of peace of each county, with jurisdiction to try and determine felonies and trespasses; but capital offenses are seldom or never tried in this court.

Quarter-round, in architecture, the echinus or ovolo.

Head-quarters, the tent or mansion of the commander in chief of an army.

QUARTER, v.t.

1. To divide into four equal parts.

2. To divide; to separate into parts.

3. To divide into distinct regions or compartments.

The sailors quarter’d heaven.

4. To station soldiers for lodging; as, to quarter troops in the city or among the inhabitants, or on the inhabitants.

5. To lodge; to fix on a temporary dwelling.

They mean this night in Sardis to be quarter’d.

6. To diet. [Not in use.]

7. To bear as an appendage to the hereditary arms.

The coat of Beauchamp - quartered by the earl of Hertford.

QUARTER, v.i. To lodge; to have a temporary residence. The general quarters at a hotel in Church street.

QUARTERAGE, n. A quarterly allowance.

QUARTER-DAY, n. The day that completes three months, the quarter of a year; the day when quarterly payments are made of rent or interest.

QUARTERED, pp. Divided into four equal parts or quarters; separated into distinct parts; lodged; stationed for lodging.

QUARTERING, ppr. Dividing into quarters or into distinct parts; stationing for lodgings.

QUARTERING, n.

1. A station.

2. Assignment of quarters for soldiers.

3. The division of a shield containing many coats.

QUARTERLY, a.

1. Containing or consisting of a fourth part; as quarterly seasons.

2. Recurring at the end of each quarter of the year; as quarterly payments of rent; a quarterly visitation or examination. The secretary requires quarterly returns from his officers.

QUARTERLY, adv. Once in a quarter of a year. The returns are made quarterly.

QUARTERN, n. The fourth part of a pint; a gill.

QUARTILE, n. An aspect of the planets, when they are distant from each other a quarter of the circle, ninety degrees, or three signs.

QUARTO, n. [L. quartus.] A book of the size of the fourth of a sheet; a size made by twice folding a sheet, which then makes four leaves.

QUARTO, a. Denoting the size of a book in which a sheet makes four leaves.

QUARTZ, n. quortz. A species of silicious minerals, of various colors, white, gray, reddish, yellowish or brownish; commonly amorphous, and frequently crystallized. The subspecies and varieties are numerous.

QUARTZY, a. Pertaining to quartz; partaking of the nature or qualities of quartz; resembling quartz. [Quartzy is the regular adjective, and quartzose and quartzous may be dispensed with.]

QUAS, n. In Russia, a drink of common domestic use; being a liquor prepared from pollard, meal and bread, or from meal and malt, by an acid fermentation.

QUASH, v.t. [L. quasso, quatio.]

1. Properly, to beat down or beat in pieces; to crush.

The whales against sharp rocks, like reeling vessels, quash’d.

2. To crush; to subdue; as, to quash a rebellion.

3. In law, to abate, annul, overthrow or make void; as, to quash an indictment. He pays judgment of the writ or declaration that the same may be quashed.

QUASH, v.i. To be shaken with a noise.

QUASH, n. A species of cucurbita; but in America pronounced squash; so called probably from it softness. [See the Verb.]

QUASHED, pp. Crushed; subdued; abated.

QUASHING, ppr. Crushing; subduing; abating.

QUASSATION, n. [L. quassatio.] The act of shaking; concussion; the state of being shaken.

QUASSIA, n. A plant, or rather a genus of plants of three species, the amara, simaruba, and excelsa or polygama, natives of South America and of some of the isles of the West Indies, and possessing valuable medicinal qualities.

QUAT, n. A pustule or pimple. [Not used.]

QUATER-COUSINS, n. ka’ter-cuzns. [L. quatuor, four, and cousin.]

Those within the first four degrees of kindred.

QUATERN, a. [L. quaterni, four, from quatuor, four.]

Consisting of four; fourfold; growing by fours; as quatern leaves.

QUATERNARY, n. [L. quaternarius, from quatuor, four.]

The number four.

QUATERNARY, a. Consisting of four.

QUATERNION, n. [L. quaternio, from quatuor, four.]

1. The number four.

2. A file of four soldiers. Acts 12:4.

QUATERNION, v.t. To divide into files or companies.

QUATERNITY, n. [supra.] The number four.

QUATRAIN, n. [L. quatror, four.]

A stanza of four lines rhyming alternately.

QUAVE, for quaver, is not used.

QUAVEMIRE, for quagmire, is not used.

QUAVER, v.i.

1. To shake the voice; to utter or form sound with rapid vibrations, as in singing; to sing with tremulous modulations of voice.

2. To tremble; to vibrate.

The finger - moved with a quavering motion.

QUAVER, n.

1. A shake or rapid vibration of the voice, or a shake on an instrument of music.

2. A note and measure of time in music, equal to half a crotchet or the eighth of a semibreve.

QUAVERED, a. or pp. Distributed into quavers.

QUAVERER, n. A warbler.

QUAVERING, ppr. Shaking the voice or the sound of an instrument.

QUAVERING, n. The act of shaking the voice, or of making rapid vibrations of sound on an instrument of music.

QUAY, n. ke.

A key; a mole or wharf, constructed in harbors for securing vessels and receiving goods unladen or to be shipped on board.

QUAY, v.t. To furnish with quays.

QUEACH, n. A thick bushy plot. Obs.

QUEACH, v.i. To stir; to move. Obs. [See Quick.]

QUEACHY, a. [from queach.]

1. Shaking; moving, yielding or trembling under the feet, as moist or boggy ground.

The queachy fens.

Godwin’s queachy sands.

[This word is still in use in New England, and if the word is from the root of quick, we recognize the application of it in quicksand.]

2. Thick; bushy. [Not in use.]

QUEAN, n.

A worthless woman; a slut; a strumpet. [Not in common use.]

QUEASINESS, n. s as z. [from queasy.] Nausea; qualmishness; inclination to vomit.

QUEASY, a. s as z.

1. Sick at the stomach; affected with nausea; inclined to vomit.

2. Fastidious; squeamish; delicate.

3. Causing nausea; as a queasy question.

QUECK, v.i.

To shrink; to flinch. Obs.

QUEEN, n.

1. The consort of a king; a queen consort.

2. A woman who is the sovereign of a kingdom; a queen-regent; as Elizabeth, queen of England; Mary, queen of Scotland.

3. The sovereign of a swarm of bees, or the female of the hive.

A hive of bees cannot subsist without a queen.

Queen of the meadows, meadow sweet, a plant of the genus Spiraea.

QUEEN, v.i. To play the queen; to act the part or character of a queen.

QUEEN-APPLE, n. A kind of apple, so called.

QUEEN-DOWAGER, n. The window of a king.

QUEEN-GOLD, n. A royal duty or revenue belonging to every queen of England during her marriage to the king.

QUEENING, n. An apple.

QUEENLIKE, a. Resembling a queen.

QUEENLY, a. Like a queen; becoming a queen; suitable to a queen.

QUEER, a.

Odd; singular; hence, whimsical.

QUEERLY, adv. In an odd or singular manner.

QUEERNESS, n. Oddity; singularity; particularity. [A familiar, not an elegant word.]

QUEEST, n. A ring dove, a species of pigeon.

QUEINT, pret. and pp. of quench.

QUELL, v.t.

1. To crush; to subdue; to cause to cease; as, to quell an insurrection or sedition.

2. To quiet; to allay; to reduce to peace; as, to quell the tumult of the soul.

3. To subdue; to reduce.

This quell’d her pride.

QUELL, v.i. To die; to abate.

QUELL, n. Murder. [Not in use.]

QUELLED, pp. Crushed; subdued; quieted.

QUELLER, n. One that crushes or subdues.

QUELLING, ppr. Crushing; subduing; reducing to peace.

QUELQUE-CHOSE, n. keck-shows.

A trifle; a kickshaw.

QUEME, v.t. To please. Obs.

QUENCH, v.t.

1. To extinguish; to put out; as, to quench flame.

2. To still; to quiet; to repress; as, to quench a passion or emotion.

3. To allay or extinguish; as, to quench thirst.

4. To destroy.

5. To check; to stifle; as, to quench the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:19.

QUENCH, v.i. To cool; to become cool.

Dost thou think, in time she will not quench? [Not in use.]

QUENCHABLE, a. That may be quenched or extinguished.

QUENCHED, pp. Extinguished; allayed; repressed.

QUENCHER, n. He or that which extinguishes.

QUENCHING, ppr. Extinguishing; quieting; stifling; repressing.

QUENCHLESS, a. That cannot be quenched or repressed; inextinguishable; as quenchless fire or fury.

QUERCITRON, n. [L. quercus, an oak.] The bark of the yellow oak, used in dyeing.

QUERELE, n. [L. querla.] A complaint to a court. [Not in use.]

QUERENT, n. [L. querens, queror, to complain.]

The complainant; the plaintiff. [Not in use.]

QUERENT, n. [L. quaerens, quaero, to inquire.]

To inquirer. [Not much used.]

QUERIMONIOUS, a. [L. querimonia, complaint, from queror.]

Complaining; querulous; apt to complain.

QUERIMONIOUSLY, adv. With complaint; querulously.

QUERIMONIOUSNESS, n. Disposition to complain; a complaining temper.

QUERIST, n. [from L. quaero, to inquire.] One who inquires or asks questions.

QUERK. [See Quirk.]

QUERKENED, a. Choked. [Illegitimate and obsolete.]

QUERL, v.t. To twirl; to turn or wind round; to coil; as, to querl a cord, thread or rope. [This is a legitimate English word, in common use in New England. It may be a dialectical variation of whirl and twirl.]

QUERN, n.

A hand-mill for grinding grain; a mill, the stone of which was turned by hand, used before the invention of windmills and watermills.

QUERPO, n. [L. corpus.]

A waistcoat or garment close to the body.

QUERQUEDULE, n. [L. querquedula.] An aquatic fowl, a species of teal of the genus Anas.

QUERRY, n. A groom. [See Equerry.]

QUERULOUS, a. [L. querulus, from queror, to complain. See Quarrel.]

1. Complaining or habitually complaining; disposed to murmur; as a querulous man or people.

2. Expressing complaint; as a querulous tone of voice.

QUERULOUSLY, adv. In a complaining manner.

QUERULOUSNESS, n. Disposition to complain, or the habit or practice of murmuring.

QUERY, n. [from L. quaere, imperative of quaero; perhaps Heb. to seek, to search, to inquire.]

A question; an inquiry to be answered or resolved.

I will conclude by proposing some queries.

QUERY, v.i. To ask a question or questions.

Three Cambridge sophs each prompt to query, answer and debate.

QUERY, v.t.

1. To seek; to inquire; as, query the sum or amount; query the motive or the fact.

2. To examine by questions.

3. To doubt of.

QUEST, n. [L. quaero, quaestus. As the letter r is rarely changed into s, perhaps the L. quaesivi, quaestus, may be from the root of quaeso.]

1. The act of seeking; search; as, to rove in quest of game; to go in quest of a lost child; in quest of property, etc.

2. Inquest; a jury. [Not used.]

3. Searchers, collectively. [Not used.]

4. Inquiry; examination. [Not used.]

5. Request; desire; solicitation.

Gad not abroad at every quest and call of an untrain’d hope or passion.

QUEST, v.i. To go in search. [Not used.]

QUEST, v.t. To search or seek for.

QUESTANT, n. [supra.] A seeker. [Not used.]

QUESTION, n. ques’chun. [L. quaestio. See Quest.]

1. The act of asking; an interrogatory; as, to examine by question and answer.

2. That which is asked; something proposed which is to be solved by answer. What is the question?

3. Inquiry; disquisition; discussion.

It is to be put to question, whether it is lawful for christian princes to make an invasive war, simply for the propagation of the faith.

4. Dispute or subject of debate.

There arose a question between some of John’s disciples and the Jews, about purifying. John 3:25.

5. Doubt; controversy; dispute. The story is true beyond all question.

This does not bring their truth in question.

6. Trial; examination; judicial trial or inquiry.

Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. Acts 23:6; Acts 24:21.

7. Examination by torture.

8. Endeavor; effort; act of seeking. [Not in use.]

9. In logic, a proposition stated by way of interrogation.

In question, in debate; in the course of examination or discussion; as, the matter or point in question.

QUESTION, v.i.

1. To ask a question or questions; to inquire by interrogatory or proposition to be answered.

He that questioneth much, shall learn much.

2. To debate by interrogatories.

QUESTION, v.t.

1. To inquire of by asking questions; to examine by interrogatories; as, to question a witness.

2. To doubt of; to be uncertain of.

And most we question what we most desire.

3. To have no confidence in; to treat as doubtful. If a man is frustrated in his designs, his prudence is questions.

QUESTIONABLE, a.

1. That may be questioned; doubtful; uncertain; disputable. the deed is of questionable authority.

It is questionable whether Galen ever saw the dissection of a human body.

2. Suspicious; liable to be doubted or disputed; liable to suspicion. His veracity is questionable.

Thou com’st in such a questionable shape, that I will speak to thee.

QUESTIONABLENESS, n. The quality or state of being doubtful, questionable or suspicious.

QUESTIONARY, a. Inquiring; asking questions; as questionary epistles.

QUESTIONED, pp.

1. Interrogated; examined by questions.

2. Doubted; disputed.