the seventeenth letter of our alphabet—absent from the Anglo-Saxon alphabet, in which the sound was expressed by cw; in Scotland replacing hw, now always followed by u: Roman numeral=500.
Qua, kwä, adv. as far as. [L.]
Quab, Quob, kwob, v.i. (obs.) to tremble.
Quack, kwak, v.i. to cry like a duck: to boast: to practise as a quack.—v.t. to doctor by quackery.—n. the cry of a duck: a boastful pretender to skill which he does not possess, esp. medical skill: a mountebank.—adj. pertaining to quackery: used by quacks.—n. Quack′ery, the pretensions or practice of a quack, esp. in medicine.—adj. Quack′ish, like a quack: boastful: trickish.—n. Quack′ism.—v.i. Quack′le (rare), to quack, croak.—n. Quack′salver, a quack who deals in salves, ointments, &c.: a quack generally.—adj. Quack′salving. [Imit.; cf. Ger. quaken, Dut. kwaken, Gr. koax, a croak.]
Quad, kwod, n. a quadrangle: (slang) a prison.—v.t. (slang) to put in prison.—Also Quod. [Quadrangle.]
Quad, kwod, n. (print.) an abbreviation of quadrat.—v.t. to fill with quadrats.
Quadra, kwod′ra, n. a frame enclosing a bas-relief:—pl. Quad′ræ (-ē). [L. quadrus, square.]
Quadragenarian, kwod-ra-jē-nā′ri-an, adj. consisting of forty: forty years old.—n. Quad′ragene, an indulgence for forty days.
Quadragesima, kwod-ra-jes′i-ma, n. the Latin name for the whole season of Lent, with its forty days: the name commonly assigned to the first Sunday in Lent, by analogy with the three Sundays which precede Lent—Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima.—adj. Quadrages′imal, belonging to or used in Lent. [L.—quadragesimus, fortieth—quadraginta, forty—quatuor, four.]