Emily Dickinson Lexicon

QUAT'RAIN, n. [Fr. from quatre, L. quatuor, four.]

A stanza of four lines rhyming alternately. – Dryden.

QUAVE, v. [or n. for Quaver, is not used.]

QUAVE'-MIRE, n. [for Quagmire, is not used.]

QUA'VER, n.

1. A shake or rapid vibration of the voice, or a shake on an instrument of music. – Addison.
2. A note and measure of time in music, equal to half a crotchet or the eighth of a semibreve.

QUA'VER, v.i. [W. cwibiaw, to quaver, to trill; Sp. quiebro, a musical shake or trill; quiebra, a break, fracture, failure. It coincides in elements with quibble, quiver, whiffle, wabble. The primary sense is to move; hence to break, applied to motion and sound. See Quiver and Vibrate.]

1. To shake the voice; to utter or form sound with rapid vibrations, as in singing; to sing with tremulous modulations of voice. – Bacon.
2. To tremble; to vibrate. The finger … moved with a quavering motion. – Newton.

QUA'VER-ED, a.

or pp. Distributed into quavers. – Harmar.

QUA'VERER, n.

A warbler.

QUA'VER-ING, n.

The act of shaking the voice, or of making rapid vibrations of sound on an instrument of music.

QUA'VER-ING, ppr.

Shaking the voice or the sound of an instrument.

QUAY, n. [ke; Fr. quai; D. kaai; Arm. qae; Ir. ceigh. If this word is radically the same as key, the sense is that which fastens or secures. Class Cg or Gk.]

A key; a mole or wharf, constructed in harbors for securing vessels and receiving goods unladen or to be shipped on board.

QUAY, v.t.

To furnish with quays. – J. Barlow.

QUEACH, n.

A thick bushy plot. [Obs.] – Chapman.

QUEACH, v.i.

To stir; to move. [Obs.] [See Quick.]

QUEACH'Y, a. [from queach.]

1. Shaking; moving, yielding or trembling under the feet, as moist or boggy ground. The queachy fens. – Drayton. Godwin's queachy sands. – Ib. [This word is still in use in New England, and if the word is from the root of quick, we recognize the application of it in quicksand.]
2. Thick; bushy. [Not in use.] – Cockeram.

QUEAN, n. [Sax. cwæn, or cwen, a woman. See Queen.]

A worthless woman; a slut; a strumpet. [Not in common use.] – Dryden. Swift.

QUEAS'I-NESS, n. [s as z. from queasy.]

Nausea; qualmishness; inclination to vomit.

QUEA'SY, a. [s as z. allied perhaps to the W. chudy, (Lhuyd,) Corn. huedzha, Arm. chueda or huyda, to vomit. Class Gs, No. 19, and Class Gd, No. 54.]

1. Sick at the stomach; affected with nausea; inclined to vomit. – Shak.
2. Fastidious; squeamish; delicate. – Shak. Dryden.
3. Causing nausea; as, a queasy question. – Shak.

QUECK, v.i. [G. quackeln, to quake, to be unsettled; to flinch.]

To shrink; to flinch. [Obs.] – Bacon.

QUEEN, n. [Sax. cwæn or cwen, Goth. queins, quens, Dan. qvinde, Sw. qvinna, a woman; Sans. kanya. Qu: Ir. coinne and Gr. γυνη.]

1. The consort of a king; a queen consort.
2. A woman who is the sovereign of a kingdom; a queen-regent; as, Elizabeth, queen of England; Mary, queen of Scotland.
3. The sovereign of a swarm of bees, or the female of the hive. A hive of bees can not subsist without a queen. – Encyc. Queen of the meadows, meadow sweet, a plant of the genus Spiræa. – Lee.

QUEEN, v.i.

To play the queen; to act the part or character of a queen. – Shak.

QUEEN'-AP-PLE, n.

A kind of apple, so called. – Mortimer.

QUEEN-DOW'A-GER, n.

The widow of a king.

QUEEN'-GOLD, n.

A royal duty or revenue belonging to every queen of England during her marriage to the king.

QUEEN'ING, n.

An apple. – Mortimer.

QUEEN'LIKE, a.

Resembling a queen. – Drayton.