Q
Q, a cue, as the signal for an actor to begin his part; ‘And took I not my Q?’ Barry, Ram-Alley, ii. 1 (W. Smallshanks); ‘And old men know their Q’s, id., iii. 1 (O. Small.). Some say it stood for L. quando, when; i.e. the time when.
quab, a crude or shapeless thing. Ford, Lover’s Melancholy, iii. 3. 5. Low G. quabbe, a piece of fat flesh, quabbeln, to be flabby, quiver like a piece of fat or soft flesh; Du. quabbe, ‘the dewlap of a Rudder-beast hanging down under his necke’ (Hexham).
quacking cheat, a cant term for a duck. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See [cheat] (2).
quadlin, a kind of apple, a ‘codling’, mentioned among the July fruits in Bacon’s Essay 46, Of Gardens; quodling, B. Jonson, Alchem. i. 1 (Dol Common). Perhaps a corruption of ME. querdlyng, appul, ‘duracenum’ (Prompt.).
quadrate, a troop in a square formation; ‘The Powers Militant . . . in mighty Quadrate joyn’d’, Milton, P. L. vi. 62. L. quadratus, squared; quadratum, a square.
quail, the name of the bird, applied to a courtesan. Tr. and Cr. v. 1. 57; B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv. 3 (Ursula). See Nares. Cp. F. cailte coiffée, ‘une femme galante’ (Moisy, s.v. Quaille); cailles coyphées, women (Rabelais, iv. 23); caille coiffée, ‘a woman’ (Cotgr.).
quail, to curdle, coagulate; ‘I quayle as mylke dothe, je quaillebotte’, Palsgrave; ‘This mylke is quayled’, id.; Phillips, Dict., 1706. In prov. use in E. Anglia and adjacent counties, see EDD. (s.v. Quail, vb.2). ME. quaylyn as mylk or odyrlyk lykowre, ‘coagulo’ (Prompt. EETS. 363). F. cailler, to curdle, to coagulate (Cotgr.), OF. coailler (Oxf. Ps. cxviii. 70); L. coagulare; cp. Ital. quagliare (coagulare, to curd or curdle (Torriano)). See [quarle].
quail, to lose courage; ‘My heart drops blood, and my false spirits Quaile’, Cymbeline, v. 5. 149; ‘Their hearts began to quaile’, Holland, Livy, xxxvi. 9. 924. A fig. sense of quail (to curdle), see above. Cp. Ital. quagliare (cagliare), ‘aggrumare’; per met. ‘mancar d’animo, venir meno’ (Fanfani, s.v. Cagliare).
quail (a trans. use of above), to cause to quail, to depress the heart with fear or dejection; ‘He meant to quail and shake the orb’, Ant. and Cl. v. 2. 85; Mids. Night’s D. v. 292 (Pyramus); Spenser, F. Q. i. 9. 49; Beaumont and Fl., Laws of Candy, i. 2 (Cassilane); Kyd, Cornelia, iv. 1. 243.
quail-pipe boot, a boot having a wrinkled appearance. Middleton, Blurt, Mr. Constable, ii. 1 (Truepenny); with reference to the E. version of the Romaunt of the Rose, 7261: ‘Highe shoes . . . That frouncen [are wrinkled] lyke a quaile-pipe.’
quaint, skilled, clever; ‘The quaint Musician’, Tam. Shrew, iii. 2. 149; skilfully designed, ‘A quaint salad’, Shirley, Traitor, iv. 2; beautiful, elegant, Milton, Samson Ag. 1303; Much Ado, iii. 4. 22; dainty, fastidious, prim, Spenser, F. Q. iii. 7. 10. OF. cointe, ‘instruit’ (Bartsch), Med. L. cognitus, ‘sciens’ (Ducange). Cp. O. Prov. coinde, cointe, ‘joli, gracieux, aimable’ (Levy).
quaisy; see [queazy].
quality, profession, occupation. Merry Wives, v. 5. 44; Hamlet, ii. 2. 363; Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1 (Metaldi).
quar, a ‘quarry’, a heap of dead men. Phaer, Aeneid ix, 526. See Dict. (s.v. Quarry, 2).
quarelet, a small square; ‘The quarelets of pearl’ (referring to a girl’s teeth), Herrick, The Rock of Rubies, and the Quarrie of Pearls, 32. See [quarrel].
quarle, a ‘quarrel’, cross-bow bolt. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 11. 33. See Dict. (s.v. Quarrel, 2).
quarle, to curdle, coagulate. Tourneur, Rev. Trag. iv. 4. 8. See [quar(r] (2).
quar(r, a stone-quarry. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, i. 1 (Sir Moth); Drayton, Pol. i. 119. In prov. use (EDD.). See Dict. (s.v. Quarry, 1).
quar(r, to coagulate; ‘It keepeth the mylke from quarring and crudding in the brest’, Lyte, Dodoens, ii. 74. 246 (NED.). In prov. use in Worc., Hants., Somerset, Devon (EDD.). See [quarle].
quarrel, a square, or diamond-shaped piece of glass, in a window; ‘A quarrell of glasse’, Puttenham, Arte of Poesie, bk. ii, ch. 11, ed. Arber, p. 106; Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, iii. 1 (Galoshio). ‘Quarrel’ is in prov. use in various parts of England for a pane of glass, esp. a diamond-shaped pane, see EDD. (s.v. Quarrel, sb.1), and NED. (s.v. Quarrel, sb.1 3).
quarron, the body; the belly (Cant); ‘To comfort the quarron’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. 1 (Song); Quaromes, a body, Harman, Caveat, p. 82. The same word as carrion, a carcass; ‘Old feeble carrions’, Jul. Caesar, ii. 1. 130. See NED.
quart, quarter, fourth part. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 10.14. L. quartus, fourth.
quart d’écu; see [cardecu].
quartile, a quartile aspect, a quadrature, denoting the position of two planets which are 90 degrees apart. Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, chap. xxxvi, st. 12; Dryden, Palamon, i. 500.
quass, to drink copiously. Gascoigne, Fruites of Warre, st. 87. Low G. quasen, quassen, to devour, swallow (Lübben).
quat, a pimple; fig. applied contemptuously to a young person. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto); Othello, v. 1. 11. ‘Quat’, meaning a pimple, is in prov. use in the Midlands, also in Hants. (EDD.).
quat, to oppress. Lyly, Euphues, p. 44. In prov. use in Wilts. and Somerset, meaning to squeeze, crush, see EDD. (s.v. Quat, vb. 3).
quat, the act or state of squatting. A hunted leveret is ‘put to the dead quat’, Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 31).
quaternion, a set of four. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, v. 3 (Cupid); Milton, P. L. v. 181; Bible, Acts xii. 4. L. quaternio (Vulgate).
quayd, quieted, appeased; ‘Therewith his sturdie courage soone was quayd’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 14. See [accoy].
queach, a dense growth of bushes, a thicket. Golding, Ovid’s Metam. i. 4; Chapman, tr. of Odyssey, xix. 610; id., Hymn to Pan; Coote’s English Schoolemaster; Howell, Londinop. 382; queachie, bushy, Golding, Metam., To Reader. See Nares. An E. Anglian word for a small plantation of trees or bushes, a ‘spinney’ (EDD.). ME. queche, a dense growth of bushes (Merlin, ed. Wheatley, iii. 540).
queachy, swampy, boggy; ‘Queachy fens’, Drayton, Pol. ii. 396; iv. 65; xvii. 384; quechy, Heywood, Brazen Age, ii. 2 (Wks. iii. 190). ‘Queechy’ is in prov. use, see EDD. (s.v. Queachy, adj.1 1).
queam; see [queme].
queat, ‘quiet’; ‘Be queat’, Warner, Alb. England, bk. i, c. 6, st. 73; bk. iii, ch. 14, st. last but one. Not uncommon. See [unqueat].
queave, to palpitate; ‘I left him queaving and quick’ (i.e. palpitating and alive), Puttenham, Arte of E. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 19 (ed. Arber, p. 223); ‘Quycke and queaving’, life and palpitation, Gascoigne, Grief of Joy (ed. Hazlitt, ii. 289). See NED. (s.v. Quave).
queazy, squeamish, fastidious, nice. Dryden, Epil. to Don Sebastian, 16; spelt quaisie, Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, p. 40); queasie, unsettling the stomach, causing nausea, Lyly, Euphues (Arber, 44); ‘Quaisy as meate or drinke is, dangereux’, Palsgrave.
†quebas, the name of an obsolete card-game. Etherege, She Would if she Could, iii. 3 (Lady Cockwood). Not found elsewhere.
queching; see [quetch].
†quecke, a knock, a whack; ‘If I fall, I catch a quecke, I may fortune to break my neck’, Interlude of Youth, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, ii. 8. Not found elsewhere.
queest; see [woodquist].
queint, pp. quenched. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 5. 11; ‘The coals . . . that be quent’, Sir T. Wyatt (Wks., ed. Bell, p. 200). ME. queynt (Chaucer, C. T. A. 2321), pp. of quenche, to quench (id., Tr. and Cr. iii. 846). See Dict.
quellio, a Spanish collar or neck-band. Ford, Lady’s Trial, ii. 1 (Guzman); quellio ruff, a Spanish ruff, Massinger, City Madam, iv. 4 (Luke). Span. cuello, neck, collar, ruff (Stevens); L. collum, neck.
quelquechose, a delicacy; the same word as kickshaws. Marston, Malcontent, i. 1. 161 (Malevole); ‘Fricandeaux, short, skinless, and dainty puddings, or Quelkchoses, made of good flesh and herbs chopped together, then rolled up into the form of Liverings, &c., and so boiled’, Cotgrave. F. quelque chose, something. See Dict. (s.v. Kickshaws).
queme, to please. Spenser, Shep. Kal., May, 15; queam, pleasure, Warner, Alb. England, bk. xii, ch. 60, st. 32. ME. queme, to please (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. v. 695); queme, pleasure, satisfaction (Cursor M. 1064); see Dict. M. and S. OE. cwēman, gecwēman, to please.
quent; see [queint].
quere, the ‘choir’ of a church. Morte Arthur, leaf 430*, back, 22; bk. xxi, c. 12; Skelton, Colyn Cloute, 396. ‘Queer’ is in prov. use for choir in the north country (EDD.). ME. quere, queer (Wyclif, Ps. lii. 1; cl. 4). Norm. F. quers, nom.; cuer, acc., ‘chœur’ (Moisy). See Dict. (s.v. Choir).
†querke: phr. to have the querke of the sea (?), Harrison, Desc. of England, bk. ii, ch. 19 (ed. Furnivall, p. 310).
querpo: phr. in querpo, in a close-fitting dress or doublet, without a cloak; ‘To walk the streets in querpo’, Fletcher, Love’s Cure, ii. 1. 2; cp. Butler, Hudibras, iii. 3. 201. Span. en cuerpo, lit. ‘in the body’; hence, half dressed. See Stanford (s.v. Cuerpo). See [cuerpo].
querre, at the, (probably) on the cross, at a cross-stroke; ‘Sir Francis. My hawk killed too. Sir Charles. Ay, but ’twas at the querre, Not at the mount, like mine’, Heywood, A Woman killed, i. 3. Cp. Low G. vor queer, across. See Dict. (s.v. Queer).
querry, an ‘equerry’. Beaumont and Fl., Noble Gentleman, v. 1 (Marine); ‘Querries, Persons that are conversant in the Queen’s Stables; and have charge of her Horses’, Phillips, Dict., 1706. See Dict. (s.v. Equerry).
quest, to seek after, search about, like a dog after game. Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, iv. 3. 2. Also, to give tongue, like a hound at the sight of game, B. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed (Townshead). ‘To quest’ is in prov. use in various parts of England, of dogs in the sense of seeking for game, and of breaking out into a bark at the sight of the quarry; see EDD. F. quester, ‘to quest, hunt; to open, as a dog that seeth, or findeth of his game’ (Cotgr.).
quest, an inquiry; a body of men summoned to hold an inquiry. Gascoigne, Works, i. 37; ‘Crowner’s quest law’, Hamlet, v. 1. 24. See Dict. (s.v. Inquest).
quest-house, the house at which the inquests in a ward or parish were commonly held, the chief watch-house in a parish. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life, i. 1 (W. Camlet).
questmongers, men who made a business of conducting inquiries, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, p. 192). ME. questmongeres (P. Plowman, B. xix. 367).
questuary, profitable, money-making. Middleton, Family of Love, v. 1 (Glister); Sir T. Browne, Vulgar Errors, bk. iii, c. 13, § 4. L. quaestuarius, relating to gain; quaestus, gain.
quetch, quitch, to move, stir, wince; ‘He dare nat quytche’, Palsgrave; ‘The Lads of Sparta of Ancient Time were wont to be Scourged upon the Altar of Diana, without so much as Queching’, Bacon, Essay 39; ‘He could not move, nor quich at all’, Spenser, F. Q. v. 9. 38; ‘They dare not queatche’, Gosson, School of Abuse, p. 35. ME. quytchyn, ‘moveo’ (Prompt.); OE. cweccan, ‘movere’ (Matt. xxvii. 39).
quibible, (perhaps) a pipe or whistle; ‘Time . . . to pype in a quibyble’, Skelton, The Douty Duke of Albany, 389.
quiblin, a trick. Eastward Ho, iii. (1 or 2) (Security); B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iv. 1 (end); ‘A quirk or a quiblin’, id., Barth. Fair, i. 1 (Littlewit); id., Alchemist, iv. 4. 728 (Face). See Dict. (s.v. Quibble).
quich; see [quetch].
quiddit, a subtle shift, law-trick. Hamlet, v. 1. 107 (fol.); Heywood, The Fair Maid, v. 2. 3.
quiddle, to trifle, to discourse in a trifling way; ‘Set out your bussing base, and we will quiddle upon it’, Damon and Pithias; in Hazlitt, iv. 81. In common prov. use from Worc. to Cornwall in the sense of acting in a fussy manner about trifles; see EDD. (s.v. Quiddle, vb.1).
quight; see [quite].
quile; see [quoil(e].
quillet, a sly trick, cavil. L. L. L. iv. 3. 288; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 1. 16.
quillity, a quibble, cavil. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, ii. 75. Cp. Ital. quilità, quillità, ‘a quillity’ (Florio).
quinch, to stir, to wince, flinch, start. Spenser, View of the State of Ireland, p. 670, col. 1 (Globe edition). Not a quinch, not a start, not a jot, ‘I care not a quinche’, Damon and Pithias, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, iv. 28.
quintell; ‘A Quintaine or Quintell, a game in request at marriages, when Jac and Tom, Dic, Hob and Will, strive for the gay garland’, Minsheu, Ductor; Herrick, A Pastorall Sung to the King, 4; quintil, Quarles, Sheph. Orac. vi (NED.).
quip, to taunt. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 7. 44; to assail with sarcasm, Greene, Verses from Cicero, 5, ed. Dyce, p. 311; to be sarcastic, Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber, p. 206).
quire, a throng, company. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 8. 48. See [quere].
†quirily, quiveringly (?). Stanyhurst, tr. of Aeneid, i. 220. Not found elsewhere.
quit, to requite. Webster, White Devil (ed. Dyce, p. 5); Beaumont and Fl., v. 1 (Antinous). See [quite].
quitch; see [quetch].
quite, quight, to free, release. Spenser, F. Q. i. 8. 10; to repay, requite, id., i. 10. 67; quite, id., i. 1. 30; i. 8. 26, 27; i. 10. 15, 37. ME. quyte, to requite, repay (Chaucer); see Dict. M. and S. Med. L. quietare, quitare, ‘pacificare, dimittere’; quietus, quitus, ‘absolutus, liber’ (Ducange).
quite-claim, to acquit, free. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 2. 14.
quittance, to requite, repay. 1 Hen. VI, ii. 1. 14; Greene, Orl. Fur. ii. 1 (499); Sacripant (p. 95, col. 2).
quitter-bone, an ulcer on the coronet of a horse’s foot. B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii. 1 (Knockem); ‘Sete, the quitter-bone; a round and hard swelling upon the cornet (between the heel and quarter) of a horse’s foot’, (Cotgrave).
quitture, a purulent discharge from a wound or sore. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xiv. 7; xxiv. 374. ME. quytere (Wyclif, Job ii. 8); whytowre (Prompt.). Anglo-F. quyture (Bozon), OF. cuiture, smarting, matter from a boil; cuire, to smart, lit. to cook, roast, &c.; L. coquere.
quiver, active, quick, rapid. 2 Hen. IV, iii. 2. 301; Turbervile, The Lover to Cupid, st. 18; quiverly, actively, Gillespie, Eng. Pop. Cerem. (NED.). OE. cwiferlīce, actively.
quoil(e, a noisy disturbance, a ‘coil’. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (ed. 1860, p. 30); Culpepper, Eng. Physic, 255; quile, Lord Cromwell, i. 1. 7. See NED. (s.v. Coil, sb.2).
quondam, once upon a time; hence, one who has formerly held an office, one who has ceased to perform duties; ‘He wyll haue euerye man a quondam as he is; as for my quondamshyp’, &c, Latimer, 4 Sermon bef. King, ed. Arber, p. 108. L. quondam, formerly.
quook, quaked; pt. t. of quake. Spenser, F. Q. vi. 6. 30. ME. quok, quaked (Chaucer, C. T. A. 1576); but the regular pt. t. is quaked(e (P. Plowman, B. xviii. 246); OE. cwacode, pt. t. of cwacian.
quote, to note, set down in writing. L. L. L. ii. 246; Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, iv. 1 (Petronius).
quoth, quoathe, to faint; ‘He, quothing as he stood’, Golding, Metam. v. 71; fol. 56 (1603); vii. 859; fol. 92. See [coath].
quot-quean, see [cot-quean].
quoying, ‘coying’, blandishing; ‘Were they living to heare our newe quoyings . . . they would tearme it (the old wooing) foolish’ (Lyly, Euphues, ed. Arber, 277). See [coy].