QUIVER. A case for arrows.
| QUI vive? | - | |
| Qui va là? | ||
| Qui est là? |
Fr. Who comes there? terms used by the French sentries when they challenge.
Etre sur le Qui vive, Fr. To be upon the alert.
QUILLON, Fr. the cross-bar of the hilt of a sword
A QUIZ. This cant word is frequently used as a substantive to describe a strange, out of the way character. It is a term of ridicule.
To Quiz. A cant word much in use among fashionable bucks or blades, as certain creatures are called. It signifies to turn another into ridicule, by some allusion to his dress or manners, some ironical word or quaint expression. In other terms, to take unwarrantable liberties with the natural defects, or harmless habits of unoffending individuals. This absurd and childish practice, (which grows out of ignorance, is supported by privileged assumption, and ought to be discouraged by every sensible man) has sometimes found its way into the British army. We need scarcely add, that it has frequently been the cause of the most serious quarrels, and is always contrary to good order and discipline. Commanding officers should, on all occasions, exert their authority, whenever there appears the least tendency to this unmanly, unofficer like, and ungentleman like custom. It ought constantly to be remembered, that the influence of evil is much stronger upon the commonality of mankind, than that of good. If an officer suffer himself to be quizzed by a brother officer, he will, by degrees, become ridiculous to the soldiers; and if he resent it, as he ought to do in primo limine, by a manly explanation with the weak fool who attempts to be witty, without possessing one spark of real wit, it is more than probable, that much ill blood will be engendered between them. The British Articles of War have, in some degree, provided against this evil. It is there specifically stated, that no officer, non-commissioned officer, or soldier, shall use any reproachful or provoking speeches or gestures to another, upon pain, if an officer, of being put in arrest (or if a non-commissioned officer, or a soldier, of being imprisoned) and of asking pardon of the party offended, in the presence of his commanding officer.
A QUIZZER. A creature, who without possessing any real wit or humor, affects to turn others into ridicule, by an insolent affectation of the talent. The thing is generally found among those calling themselves fashionable young men, which, (to use a very apposite expression) has more money than wit, plumes itself upon wealth or connexion, and endeavors to make up by noise, turbulence, and privileged contradiction, what it wants in real knowlege and solid understanding. It is sometimes seen at a military mess, and about the purlieus of taverns and gaming tables.
QUOIL, in gunnery, a rope laid round in a ring, one turn over another.
QUOINS, in architecture, denote the corners of brick or stone walls.