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.