Emily Dickinson Lexicon

QUART'ILE, n.

An aspect of the planets, when they are distant from each other a quarter of the circle, ninety degrees, or three signs. – Harris. Dryden.

QUART'INE, n.

In botany, the fourth integument of the nucleus of a seed, reckoning the outermost as the first. It is only occasionally that there are more than two integuments. – Lindley.

QUART'O, a.

Denoting the size of a book, in which a sheet makes four leaves.

QUART'O, n. [L. quartus.]

A book of the size of the fourth of a sheet; a size made by twice folding a sheet, which then makes four leaves.

QUARTZ, n. [quortz; G. quartz.]

White flint; a species of silicious mineral, of various colors, white, gray, reddish, yellowish or brownish; commonly amorphous, and frequently crystalized. The subspecies and varieties are numerous. – Kirwan. Cleaveland.

QUARTZ'Y, a.

Pertaining to quartz; partaking of the nature or qualities of quartz; resembling quartz. [Quartzy is the regular adjective, and quartzose and quartzous may be dispensed with.]

QUAS, n.

In Russia, a drink of common domestic use; being a liquor prepared from pollard, meal and bread, or from meal and malt, by an acid fermentation. – Tooke.

QUASH, n.

A species of cucurbita, more commonly and more properly called squash; so called probably from its softness. [See the verb.]

QUASH, v.i.

To be shaken with a noise. – Sharp.

QUASH, v.t. [Sax. cwysan; D. kwetsen; G. quetschen; Fr. casser; It. squassare; L. quasso, quatio. Class Gs, No. 17, 28, 60, 68, and Class Gd, No. 38, 76. See Squeeze.]

1. Properly, to beat down or beat in pieces; to crush. The whales / Against sharp rocks, like reeling vessels quash'd. – Walter.
2. To crush; to subdue; as, to quash a rebellion. – Addison.
3. In law, to abate, annul, overthrow or make void; as, to quash an indictment. He prays judgment of the writ or declaration that the same may be quashed. – Blackstone.

QUASH'ED, pp.

Crushed; subdued; abated.

QUASH'ING, ppr.

Crushing; subduing; abating.

QUA'SI, a. [as if.]

This Latin word is sometimes used before English words to express resemblance; as, quasi-argument, that which resembles or is used as an argument.

QUAS-SA'TION, n. [L. quassatio.]

The act of shaking; concussion; the state of being shaken. – Gayton.

QUAS'SIA, n.

The name of a genus of plants of one species, a native of South America, and possessing valuable medicinal powers, but not known in the shops of the United States, the article called by the name of quassia, in them, being the Simaruba excelsa.

QUAT, n.

A pustule or pimple. [Not used.] – Shak.

QUA'TER-COUS-INS, n. [ka'ter-cuzns; L. quatuor, four, and cousin.]

Those within the first four degrees of kindred. – Skinner.

QUA'TERN, a. [L. quaterni, four, from quatuor, four.]

Consisting of four; fourfold; growing by fours; as, quatern leaves. – Martyn.

QUA-TERN'A-RY, a.

Consisting of four. – Gregory.

QUA-TERN'A-RY, n. [L. quaternarius, from quatuor, four.]

The number four. – Boyle.

QUA-TERN'I-ON, n. [L. quaternio, from quatuor, four.]

1. The number four. – Milton.
2. A file of four soldiers. – Acts xii.

QUA-TERN'I-ON, v.t.

To divide into files or companies. – Milton.

QUA-TERN'I-TY, n. [supra.]

The number four. – Brown.

QUA-TERN-OX'A-LATE, n.

A combination of one equivalent of oxalic acid with four equivalents of a base.

QUA-TER-ON, n. [See QUADROON.]