Emily Dickinson Lexicon

QUAD-RU-PLI-CA'TION, n.

The act of making fourfold and taking four times the simple sum or amount.

QUAD'RU-PLING, ppr.

Making four times as much or many.

QUAD'RU-PLY, adv.

To a fourfold quantity; as, to be quadruply recompensed. – Swift.

QUAE'RE, [QUÆ'RE; L.]

Inquire; better written query, – which see.

QUAEST'OR, n. [QUÆST'OR. See QUESTOR.]

QUAFF, v.i.

To drink largely or luxuriously. – South. Dryden.

QUAFF, v.t. [Fr. coiffer, to cap or hood; se coiffer, to fuddle, or be fuddled, from coiffe, a hood. But qu. In the Ethiopic, ከወፈ quaf or kwof, is to draw, to draw out. Ludolf, 407. In Arabic, قَابَ kauba or kwaba, is to drink largely, or to devour, as food.]

To drink; to swallow in large draughts. He quaffs the muscadel. – Shak. They in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy. – Milton.

QUAFF-ED, pp.

Drank; swallowed in large draughts.

QUAFF-ER, n.

One that quaffs or drinks largely.

QUAFF-ER, v.t.

To feel out. [Not in use.] – Derham.

QUAFF-ING, ppr.

Drinking; swallowing draughts.

QUAG'GA, n.

A pachydermatous mammal, the Equus Quagga, nearly allied to the ass on the one hand, and the zebra on the other. It inhabits southern Africa.

QUAG'GY, a. [supposed to be from the root of Quake.]

Yielding to the feet or trembling under the foot, as soft wet earth.

QUAG'MIRE, n. [that is, quake-mire.]

Soft wet land, which has a surface firm enough to bear a person, but which shakes or yields under the feet. – Tusser. Shak. More.

QUA'HAUG, a. [quaw'hog.]

In New England, the popular name of a large species of clams or bivalvular shells. [This name is probably derived from the natives.]

QUAID, a.

or pp. [for Quailed.] Crushed, subdued, or depressed. [Not used.] – Spenser.

QUAIL, n. [It. quaglia; Fr. caille; Arm. coaill.]

A vague English popular name of certain gallinaceous birds. It is applied to more than twenty different species, and of more than one genus. Its application in New England varies within short distances, which is believed also to be the fact, in other parts of the United States.

QUAIL, v.i. [Quail, in English, signifies to sink or languish, to curdle, and to crush or quell. The Italian has quagliare, to curdle, and the Sax. cwellan, to quell, and the D. kwaal is disease. If these are of one family, the primary sense is to shrink, to withdraw, and transitively, to beat down. In W. cwl signifies a flagging or drooping; cwla, faint, languid.]

1. To sink into dejection; to languish; to fail in spirits. – Shak. Knolles.
2. To fade; to wither. [Obs.] – Hakewill.

QUAIL, v.i. [Fr. cailler; Sp. cuajar; Port. coalhar; It. quagliare, to curdle; W. caul, a calf's maw, rennet, chyle, a curd; ceulaw, to curdle. The sense is to contract.]

To curdle; to coagulate; as milk. – Bailey.

QUAIL, v.t. [Sax. cwellan.]

To crush; to depress; to sink; to subdue. – Spenser.

QUAIL'ING, n.

The act of failing in spirit or resolution; decay. – Shak.

QUAIL'ING, ppr.

Failing; languishing.

QUAIL'PIPE, n.

A pipe or call for alluring quails into a net; a kind of leathern purse in the shape of a pear, partly filled with horse hair, with a whistle at the end. – Encyc.

QUAINT, a. [Old Fr. coint, Arm. coent, coant, pretty. In Norman French, coint is familiar, affable, and accoinet, is very necessary or familiar. The latter word would lead us to refer quaint to the Latin accinctus, ready, but Skinner thinks it more probably from comptus, neat, well dressed.]

1. Nice; scrupulously and superfluously exact; having petty elegance; as, a quaint phrase; a quaint fashion. – Sidney. Shak. To show how quaint an orator you are. – Shak.
2. Subtil; artful. [Obs.] – Chaucer.
3. Fine-spun; artfully framed. – Shak. Milton.
4. Affected; as, quaint fopperies. – Swift.
5. In common use, odd; fanciful; singular; and so used by Chaucer.

QUAINT'LY, adv.

1. Nicely; exactly; with petty neatness or spruceness; as, hair more quaintly curled. – B. Jonson.
2. Artfully. Breathe his faults so quaintly. – Shak.
3. Ingeniously; with dexterity. I quaintly stole a kiss. – Gay.