Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.