“Des testamens qu’on dit le maistre
De mon fait n’aura QUID ne QUOD.”
Quid, a small piece of tobacco—one mouthful. Quid est hoc? asked one, tapping the swelled cheek of another; Hoc est quid, promptly replied the other, exhibiting at the same time a “chaw” of the weed. Cud is probably a corruption. Derivation, O. F., or Norman, QUIDER, to ruminate.
Quid-nunc, an inquisitive person, always seeking for news. The words translated simply signify, “What now?”
Quiet, “on the QUIET,” clandestinely, so as to avoid observation, “under the rose.”
Quill-driver, a scrivener, a clerk,—satirical phrase similar to “steel bar driver,” a tailor.
Quiller, a parasite, a person who sucks neatly through a quill. See [SUCK UP].
Quilt, to thrash, or beat.
Quisby, bankrupt, poverty-stricken. Amplification of [QUEER].
Quisi, roguish, low, obscene.—Anglo-Chinese.
Qui-tam, a solicitor. He who, i.e., “he who, as much for himself as for the King,” seeks a conviction, the penalty for which goes half to the informer and half to the Crown. The term would, therefore, with greater propriety, be applied to a spy than to a solicitor.