He ate hard eggs, shell and all, for his breakfast, devoured gigantic prawns with their heads and tails on, chewed tobacco and water-cresses at the same time, drank scalding hot tea without winking, bit his fork and spoon till they bent again, and performed so many horrifying acts, that one might doubt if he were indeed human.—Ch. v.
Mrs. Quilp (Betsy), wife of the dwarf, a loving, young, timid, obedient, and pretty blue-eyed little woman, treated like a dog by her diabolical husband, whom she really loved but more greatly feared.—C. Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop (1840).
Quinnailon (Father). Benevolent priest in Xerxes, a Western town. He succors the suffering of whatever creed and conditions, and shares his little all with the needy. When appointed bishop, he goes to Rome to beg for permission to decline the honor.
“I will fall at the feet of the Holy Father, and beseech him not to make a bishop out of a poor, simple old man who cannot bear so great a burden; but to let me come back and die among my dear people!”—Octave Thanet, Quilters in the Sun (1877).
Quinap´alus, the Mrs. Harris of “authorities in citations.” If any one quotes from an hypothetical author, he gives Quinapalus as his authority.
What says Quinapalus: “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”—Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, act. i. sc. 5 (1614).
Quinbus Flestrin (the “man-mountain”). So the Lilliputians called Gulliver (ch. ii.).—Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (“Voyage to Lilliput,” 1726).
Quince (Peter), a carpenter, who undertakes the management of the play called “Pyramus and Thisbê,” in Midsummer Night’s Dream. He speaks of “laughable tragedy,” “lamentable comedy,” “tragical mirth,” and so on.—Shakespeare, Midsummer Night’s Dream (1592).
Quino´nes (Suero de), in the reign of Juan II. He, with nine other cavaliers, held the bridge of Orbigo against all comers for thirty-six days, and in that time they overthrew seventy-eight knights of Spain and France.