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].