questus 
land which floes not .descend by hereditary right, 
but is acquired by one's own labor and industry. 
Also qitiestux. 
questwordt (kwest'werd), n. A beqiieathment. 
The legacies or questu'ord of the deceased supplied the 
rest. Archeeologia (Vim), X. 197. (Davies.) 
quetcht, r. See quitch*. 
quethe 1 , r. t. ; pret. qiiotJi, ppr. quetlting. [< 
ME. qucthcn (pret. quoth, quod, koth, ko, earlier 
qiiath, queth), < AS. eiretlian (pret. cwseth, pi. 
cireedon, pp. gr-cwetlten), speak, say. Cf. Oe- 
queath.] 1. To say; declare; speak. [Obso- 
lete except in the archaic preterit quoth.] 
I quethe hym qnyte, and hym relese 
Of Egypt nlle the wildirnesse. 
Horn, of the Rose, 1. 6999. 
Being alive and seinge I peryshe, i. beinge quycke and 
quethyng I am undone. 
Palsgrave, Acolastus (1S40). (HaUiweU.) 
"Lordynges," quoth he, "now herkneth for the beste. " 
Chaucer, Prol. to C. T., 1. 788. 
"I hold by him." 
"And I," quoth Everard, "by the wassail-howl." 
Tennyson, The Epic. 
2f. To Bequeath. 
Hous and rente and outlier thyng 
Mow they quethe at here endyng. 
MS. Hart. 1701, f. 42. (HalMwell.) 
quethe 2 t, See qued. 
quetzal (kwet'sal), . [Native name.] The 
paradise-trogon, Pharomacrus mocinno (or Ca- 
lurus elegans), the most magnificent of the 
trogons, of a golden-green and carmine color, 
with long airy upper tail-coverts projecting 
like sprays a foot or two beyond the tail. It 
inhabits Central America, especially Costa 
Rica. See cut under trogon. Also qttesal, quijal. 
queue (ku), n. [< F. queue, a tail, < L. cauda, 
tail: see ewe 1 .] 1. A tail; in her., the tail of 
a beast. 2. A tail or pendent braid of hair; a 
pigtail: originally part of the wig, but after- 
ward, and toward the close of the eighteenth 
century, when it was in common use, formed 
of the hair of the head. See cite*, 1. 3. Same 
as cue 1 , 2. 
Several dozen [men] standing in a queue as at the ticket 
office of a railway station. 
H. James, Jr., International Episode, p. 13. 
4. The tail-piece of a violin or similar instru- 
ment. 5. In musical notation, the stem or tail 
of a note. 
queue (ku), v. t. ; pret. and pp. queued, ppr. queu- 
ing. [< queue, n.] To tie, braid, or fasten in 
a queue or pigtail. 
Among his officers was a sturdy veteran named Kelder- 
meester, who had cherished through a long life a mop of 
hair . . . queued so tightly to his head that his eyes and 
mouth generally stood ajar, and his eyebrows were drawn 
up to the top of his forehead. 
Irving, Knickerbocker, p. 316. 
queued (kud), a. [< queue + -erf 2 .] In her., 
same as tailed: used in the phrases double 
queued, triple queued, etc. 
quevert, . See quiver^. 
quewt, n. An obsolete spelling of cei, 3 (a). 
At the third time the great door openeth, for he shut in 
one before of purpose to open it when his quew came. 
CalfhiU, Answer to Martlall, p. 209. (Davies.) 
quey (kwa), n. [Also qiiee; ME. quye, qwye; < 
Icel. kviga = Sw. qviga = Dan. krie, a quey.] A 
young cow or heifer; a cow that has not yet 
had a calf. [Scotch.] 
Nought left me o' four-and-twenty gude ousen and ky, 
My weel-ridden gelding, and a white quey. 
Fray of Suport (Child's Ballads, VI. 116). 
queycht, . An obsolete variant of qunigJi. 
queyntt, . An obsolete variant of quaint. 
quhilk, }iron. A Scotch form of which. 
quhillest, adv. Ah obsolete Scotch form of 
whilst. 
quibt (kwib), . [A var. of quip; cf. quibble.] 
A sarcasm ; a taunt ; a gibe ; a quip. 
After he was gone, M r . Weston, in lue of thanks to ye 
Goyr and his freinds hear, gave them . . . [a| qmb (be- 
hind their baks) for all their pains. 
Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, p. 151. 
quibble (kwib'l), v. i. ; pret. and pp. quibbled, 
ppr. quibbling. [Freq. of quip; cf. quilt.'] 1. 
To trifle in argument or discourse; evade the 
point in question, or the plain truth, by artifice, 
play upon words, or any conceit; prevaricate. 
Quibbling about self-interest and motives, and objects 
of desire, and the greatest happiness of the greatest num- 
ber is but a poor employment for a grown man. 
Macaiday, Mill on Government. 
2. To pun. 
His part has :ill the wit, 
Kor none speakes, carps, and rfuibbles besides him ; 
I'd rather see him leap, or laugh, or cry, 
Than hear the gravest speech in all the play. 
Oo/e, Careless Shepherdess, Prel. (Strutt.) 
4909 
quibble (kwib'l), H. [< quibble, v.] 1. A start 
or turn from the point in question . or from plain 
truth ; an evasion ; a prevarication. 
Quirks and quibbles . . . have no place in the search 
after truth. Walts, Improvement of Mind, i. 9, 27. 
His still refuted quirks he still repeats ; 
New rais'd objections with new quibbles meets. 
Cmeper, Progress of Error, 1. 5fil. 
2. A pun ; a trivial conceit. 
Puns and quibbles. Addison. 
It was very natural, therefore, that the common people, 
by & quibble, which is the same in Flemish as In English, 
should call the proposed "Moderation" the "Murdera- 
tion." Motley, Dutch Republic, I. 529. 
quibbler (kwib'ler), n. 1. One who quib- 
bles ; one who evades plain truth by trifling 
artifices, play upon words, or the like. 2. A 
punster. 
quibblet (kwib'let), n. Same as quibble, 2. 
Xares. 
quibbling (kwib'ling), . A pun; a witticism. 
I have made a quibbling in praise of her myself. 
Shirley, Witty Fair One, ill. 2. 
quibbllngly (kwib'ling-li), ndr. In a quibbling 
manner; evasively; punningly. 
quibibt, " [ME., also quibyb, quybibc, quybybe, 
usually in pi. quibibes, < OF. quibibes, cubebex. 
cubebs : see cubeb.] An obsolete form of cubeb. 
quiblint, . [Appar. forquibbling .] A quibble. 
To o'erreach that head that outreacheth all heads, 
'lisa trick rampant ! 'tis a very quiblyn ! 
Marston, Jonson, and Chapman, Eastward Ho, iii. 2. 
quicet, w. Same as qneest. 
quicht, v. i. Same as quitch 1 . 
quick (kwik), a. and n. [< ME. quik, qwik, qwyk, 
quek, cwic, cwuc, < AS. cwic, cwyc, cwicu, cucu, 
living, alive, = OS. OFries. quik = D. kwik = 
LG. quik = OHG. quec, queh, quek, chec, MHG. 
quec (queek-), kec (keck-), G. queek (in quecksilber 
= E. mticksilrer), living, keck, living, lively, 
quick (> Sw. kack = Dan. kjsek, lively), = Icel. 
kvikr, kykr = Sw. qvick = Dan. Mfe(aH these 
forms having an unorig. k developed before the 
orig. TO) = Goth, kmus (*kwiwa-), living, quick, 
= L. rivus, living (cf. vivere, live, > vita, life), 
for orig. *gvivus, = Gr. (3ioc, life (> fttovv, live, 
/3/orof, life, way of life) (the same relation of 
E. c (k), L. r, Gr. J3 appearing in E. come = L. 
venire = Gr. jjalittv), = OBulg. zhivit = Bohem. 
zkiwy = Euss. ghimi = Lith. givas, living; Skt. 
V/ Jw, live. To the same root in Teut. belongs 
Icel. kreikja, krcykja, kindle (a fire).] I. a. 1. 
Living: alive; live. [Archaic.] 
Men may see there the Erthe of the Tombe apertly 
many tymes steren and meven, as there weren quykke 
thinges undre. Mandemtte, Travels, p. 22. 
Seven of their Porters were taken, whom leremie com- 
manded to be flayed quicke. 
Capt. John Smith, True Travels, I. 24. 
He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 
Apostles' Creed. 
Still this great solitude is quick with life. 
Bryant, The Prairies. 
2. Lively; characterized by physical or mental 
liveliness or sprightliness ; prompt ; ready ; 
sprightly; nimble; brisk. 
The next lesson wolde be some quicke and merydialoges, 
elect out of Luciane. Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, i. 10. 
To have an open ear, a quick eye, and a nimble hand 
is necessary for a cutpurse. Shale., \V. T., iv. 4. 686. 
Where is the boy ye brought me? 
A pretty lad, and of a quick capacity, 
And bred up neatly. Fletcher, Pilgrim, ii. 2. 
Good intellectual powers, when aided by a comparative- 
ly small power of prolonged attention, may render their 
possessor quick and intelligent. 
J. Sully, Outlines of Psychol., p. 100. 
3. Prompt to perceive or to respond to im- 
pressions; perceptive in a high degree; sen- 
sitive; hence, excitable; restless; passionate. 
Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him. 
Shak., Rich. II., ii. 1. 234. 
Quiet to quick bosoms is a hell, 
And there hath been thy bane. 
Byron, Childe Harold, lit. 42. 
No more the widow's deafened ear 
Grows quick that lady's step to hear. 
Scott, Marniion, ii., Int. 
She was quick to discern objects of real utility. 
Prescott, Ferd. and Isa., II. 16. 
4. Speedy; hasty; swift; rapid; done or occur- 
ring in a short time ; prompt ; immediate : as, a 
quick return of profits. 
Give thee quick conduct. Shak., tear, iii. 6. 104. 
Slow to resolve, but in performance quick. 
Dryden, Hind and Panther, iii. 921. 
It may calm the apprehension of calamity in the most 
susceptible heart to see how quick a bound nature has set 
to the utmost infliction of malice. 
Emerson, Essays, 1st ser., p. 239. 
quick-answered 
So quick the run, 
We felt the good ship shake and reel. 
Tennyson, The Voyage. 
5. Hasty; precipitate; irritable; sharp; un- 
ceremonious. 
In England, if God's preacher. God's minister, be any 
thing quick, or do speak sharply, then he is a foolish fel- 
low, he is rash, he lacketh discretion. 
Latimer, Sermon hef. Edw. VI., 1550. 
He had rather haue a virgin that could giue a quicke 
aunswere that might cut him then a milde speache that 
might claw him. Lyly, Euphues and his England, p. 280. 
6. Pregnant ; with child : specifically noting a 
woman when the motion of the fetus is felt. 
Jaquenetta that is quick by him. 
Shak., L. L. L., v. 2. 687. 
His vncles wife surviues, purchance 
Left quick with child ; & thtm he may goe dance 
For a new living. Times' Whistle (E. E. T. S.), p. 39. 
Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of reli- 
gious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democ- 
racy. Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 238. 
7. Active in operation; piercing; sharp; 
hence, bracing; fresh. 
for the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper 
than any two edged sword. Heb. iv. 12. 
The air Is quick there, 
And it pierces and sharpens the stomach. 
Shak., Pericles, iv. 1. 28. 
Why stay I after? but I deserve to stay, 
To feel the quick remembrance of my follies. 
Steele, Lying Lover, v. 1. 
Quick anatomy*, vivisection. Quick goods, cattle or 
domestic animals. A'orris, Pamphlet (Charleston, 1712). 
Quick-return gearing. See gearing. Quick time. 
See quickstep, 1. Quick water, a dilute solution of nitrate 
of mercury and gold, used in the process of water-gilding. 
E. H. Kmght. = Syn. 2 and 4. Expeditious, rapid, active, 
alert, agile, harrying, hurried, fleet, dexterous, adroit. See 
quickness. 3.' Acute, keen. 
II. n. If. A living being. [Rare.] 
Tho, peeping close Into the thicke, 
Might see the moving of some quicke. 
Spenser, Snep. Cal., March. 
2. That which is quick, or living and sensi- 
tive: with the definite article: as, cut to the 
quiet:. 
This test nippeth, this pincheth, this touches the quick. 
Ltltimer. 
I know the man, 
And know he has been nettled to the quick too. 
Fletcher, Double Marriage, ii. 3. 
How feebly and unlike themselves they reason when 
they come to the quick of the difference. Fuller. 
You fret, and are gall'd at the quick. 
Milton, On Def. of Humb. Remonst. 
3. A live fence or hedge formed of some grow- 
ing plant, usually hawthorn ; quickset. 
The workes and especially the countercamp are curi- 
ously hedg'd with quick. Evelyn, Diary, Sept. 22, 1641. 
Wild bird, whose warble, liquid sweet, 
Rings Eden thro' the budded quicks. 
Tennyson, In Memoriam, Uxxviii. 
4. The quitch-grass. Alsoquickt,;quitch. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
quick (kwik),ffr. [< quick, a.] 1. In a quick 
manner; nimbly; with celerity ; rapidly; with 
haste; speedily: as, run quick. 
But quick as thought the change is wrought. 
Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament (Child's Ballads, IV. 126). 
2. Soon ; in a short time ; without delay : as, 
go and return quick. 
Then rise the tender germs, upstarting quick. 
Couyer, Task, iii. 521. 
quick (kwik), v. [< ME. quikken, quiken, quyken; 
< quick, a.] I. trmis. If. To make alive ; quick- 
en; animate. 
"The whiles I quykke the corps," quod he, "called am I 
Anima ; 
And whan I wilne and wolde Animus ich hatte." 
Piers Plomnan (B), xv. 23. 
Thow seyst thy princes han thee yeven myght 
Bothe for to sleen and for to quike a wyght. 
Chaucer, Second Nun's Tale, 1. 481. 
2f. To revive ; kindle ; quicken. 
Pandarus to quylce alwey the fire 
Was ever yholde prest and diligent. 
Chaucer, Troilus, ill. 484. 
3. In electroplating, to prepare for the firmer 
adhesion of the deposited metal by the use of 
a solution of nitrate of mercury. 
With a brush dipped therein [in a solutioti of quicksilver 
and aquafortis] they stroke over the surface of the metal 
to be gilt, which immediately becomes quicked. 
Workshop Receipts, 1st ser., p. 308. 
II. t intniHx. To become alive ; revive. 
Right anon on of the fyres queynte, 
And quykede agayn. 
Chaucer, Knight's Tale, I. 1477. 
quick-answeredt (kwik'^n'serd), n. [< quick 
+ (inxirer, ., -I- -/2.] Quick in reply; ready 
at repartee. [Rare.] 
