Emily Dickinson Lexicon

QUAINT'NESS, n.

1. Niceness; petty neatness or elegance. There is a majesty in simplicity, which is far above the quaintness of wit. – Pope.
2. Oddness; peculiarity.

QUAKE, n.

A shake; a trembling; a shudder; a tremulous agitation. – Suckling.

QUAKE, v.i. [Sax. cwacian; G. quackeln; Eth. ሀወከ hwyka, to shake, to agitate.]

1. To shake; to tremble; to be agitated with quick but short motions continually repeated; to shudder. Thus we say, a person quakes with fear or terror, or with cold. – Heb. xii.
2. To shake with violent convulsions, as well as with trembling; as, the earth quakes; the mountains quake. – Neh. i.
3. To shake, tremble or move, as the earth under the feet; as, the quaking mud. – Pope.

QUAKE, v.t.

To frighten; to throw into agitation. [Not used.] – Shak.

QUA'KER, n.

One that quakes; but usually, one of the religious sect called friends. This name, quakers, is said to have been given to the sect in reproach, on account of some agitations which distinguished them; but it is no longer appropriated to them by way of reproach.

QUA'KER-ISM, n.

The peculiar manners, tenets or worship of the quakers. – Milner. Boswell.

QUA'KER-LY, a.

Resembling quakers. – Goodman.

QUA'KER-Y, n.

Quakerism.

QUA'KING, n.

A shaking; tremulous agitation; trepidation. – Dan. x.

QUA'KING, ppr.

Shaking; trembling.

QUA'KING-GRASS, n.

An herb. – Ainsworth.

QUAK'ING-LY, adv.

Tremblingly.

QUAL'I-FI-A-BLE, a. [from qualify.]

That may be qualified; that may be abated or modified. – Barrow.

QUAL-I-FI-CA'TION, n. [Fr. See Qualify.]

1. Any natural endowment or any acquirement which fits a person for a place, office or employment, or enables him to sustain any character with success. Integrity and talents should be considered as indispensable qualifications for men intrusted with public affairs; but private interest and party-spirit will often dispense with these and all other qualifications. There is no qualification for government but virtue and wisdom, actual or presumptive. – Burke.
2. Legal power or requisite; as, the qualifications of electors.
3. Abatement; diminution. – Ralegh.
4. Modification; restriction; limitation. Words or expressions may be used in a general sense, without any qualification.

QUA'LI-FI-ED, pp.

Fitted by accomplishments or endowments; modified. Qualified fee, in law, a base fee, or an estate which has a qualification annexed to it, and which ceases with the qualification, as a grant to A. and his heirs, tenants of the manor of Dale. Qualified negative, in legislation, the power of negativing bills which have passed the two houses of the legislature; a power vested in the president, governor or other officer, but subject to be overruled and defeated by a subsequent vote of the two houses, passed in conformity with the provisions of the constitution. – United States. W. Smith. Qualified property, is that which depends on temporary possession, as that in wild animals reclaimed.

QUAL'I-FI-ED-NESS, n.

The state of being qualified or fitted.

QUAL'I-FI-ER, n.

He or that which qualifies; that which modifies, reduces, tempers or restrains. – Junius.

QUAL'I-FY, v.t. [Fr. qualifier; It. qualificare; Sp. calificar; L. qualis, such, and facio, to make.]

1. To fit for any place, office, occupation or character; to furnish with the knowledge, skill or other accomplishment necessary for a purpose; as, to qualify a man for a judge, for a minister of state or of the gospel, for a general or admiral. Holiness alone can qualify men for the society of holy beings.
2. To make capable of any employment or privilege; to furnish with legal power or capacity; as, in England, to qualify a man to kill game.
3. To abate; to soften; to diminish; as, to qualify the rigor of a statute. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire, / But qualify the fire's extreme rage. – Shak.
4. To ease; to assuage. – Spenser.
5. To modify; to restrain; to limit by exceptions; as, to qualify words or expressions, or to qualify the sense of words or phrases.
6. To modify; to regulate; to vary; as, to qualify sounds.

QUAL'I-FY-ING, ppr.

Furnishing with the necessary qualities, properties or accomplishments for a place, station or business; furnishing with legal power; abating; tempering; modifying; restraining.

QUAL'I-TY, n. [L. qualitas, from qualis, such; Fr. qualité; Sp. calidad; It. qualità; Ir. cail.]

1. Property; that which belongs to a body or substance, or can be predicated of it. Qualities are natural or accidental. Thus whiteness is a natural quality of snow; softness is a natural quality of wool and fur; hardness is a natural quality of metals and wood; figure and dimension are the natural qualities of solids; but a particular figure, as a cube, a square or a sphere, is an accidental or adventitious quality. The fluidity of metals is an accidental quality. Essential qualities are such as are necessary to constitute a thing what it is. Sensible qualities are such as are perceptible to the senses, as the light of the sun, the color of cloth, the taste of salt or sugar, &c.
2. Nature, relatively considered; as, the quality of an action, in regard to right and wrong. Other creatures have not judgment to examine the quality of that which is done by them. – Hooker.
3. Virtue or particular power of producing certain effects; as, the qualities of plants or medicines.
4. Disposition; temper. To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note / The qualities of people. – Shak.
5. Virtue or vice; as, good qualities, or bad qualities. – Dryden.
6. Acquirement; accomplishment; as, the qualities of horsemanship, dancing and fencing. – Clarendon.
7. Character. The attorney partakes of both qualities, that of a judge of the court, and that of attorney-general. – Bacon.
8. Comparative rank; condition in relation to others; as, people of every quality. We obtained acquaintance with many citizens, not of the meanest quality. – Bacon.
9. Superior rank; superiority of birth or station; as, persons of quality; ladies of quality.
10. Persons of high rank, collectively. I shall appear at the masquerade dressed up in my feathers, that the quality may see how pretty they will look in their traveling habits. – Addison.

QUALM, n. [quàm; D. kwaal, disease; kwaalyk, sick; G. quälen, to pain or vex. In G. qualm is steam, vapor, exhalation; D. kwalm, id. The Danish qvalm signifies vapor, steam, fume, exhalation; qvalmer, to ramble; det giver qvalme, it rises in the stomach. The latter is the English word.]

1. A rising in the stomach, as it is commonly called; a fit of nausea, or a disposition or effort of the stomach to eject its contents.
2. A sudden fit or seizure of sickness at the stomach; a sensation of nausea; as, qualms of heart-sick agony. – Milton. For who, without a qualm, hath ever look'd / On holy garbage, though by Homer cook'd? – Roscommon.
3. A scruple of conscience, or uneasiness of conscience.

QUALM'ISH, a.

quàmish. [supra.] Sick at the stomach; inclined to vomit; affected with nausea or sickly languor. – Dryden.

QUALM'ISH-LY, adv.

In a qualmish manner.

QUALM'ISH-NESS, n.

Nausea.

QUAMDIU-SE-BENE-GESSERIT, adv. [Quamdiu se bene gesserit; L.]

During good behavior.