Part 712

Syn. -- Quaint, Odd, Antique. Antique is applied to that which has come down from the ancients, or which is made to imitate some ancient work of art. Odd implies disharmony, incongruity, or unevenness. An odd thing or person is an exception to general rules of calculation and procedure, or expectation and common experience. In the current use of quaint, the two ideas of odd and antique are combined, and the word is commonly applied to that which is pleasing by reason of both these qualities. Thus, we speak of the quaint architecture of many old buildings in London; or a quaint expression, uniting at once the antique and the fanciful.

Quain"tise (?), n. [OF. cointise.] 1. Craft; subtlety; cunning. [Obs.] Chaucer. R. of Glouces.

2. Elegance; beauty. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Quaint"ly (?), adv. In a quaint manner. Shak.

Quaint"ness, n. The quality of being quaint. Pope.

Quair (?), n. [See 3d Quire.] A quire; a book. [Obs.] "The king's quhair." James I. (of Scotland).

Quake (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Quaked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Quaking.] [AS. cwacian; cf. G. quackeln. Cf. Quagmire.] 1. To be agitated with quick, short motions continually repeated; to shake with fear, cold, etc.; to shudder; to tremble. "Quaking for dread." Chaucer.

She stood quaking like the partridge on which the hawk is ready to seize.

Sir P. Sidney.

2. To shake, vibrate, or quiver, either from not being solid, as soft, wet land, or from violent convulsion of any kind; as, the earth quakes; the mountains quake. " Over quaking bogs." Macaulay.

Quake, v. t. [Cf. AS. cweccan to move, shake. See Quake, v. t.] To cause to quake. [Obs.] Shak.

Quake, n. A tremulous agitation; a quick vibratory movement; a shudder; a quivering.

Quak"er (?), n. 1. One who quakes.

2. One of a religious sect founded by George Fox, of Leicestershire, England, about 1650, -- the members of which call themselves Friends. They were called Quakers, originally, in derision. See Friend, n., 4.

Fox's teaching was primarily a preaching of repentance . . . The trembling among the listening crowd caused or confirmed the name of Quakers given to the body; men and women sometimes fell down and lay struggling as if for life.

Encyc. Brit.

3. (Zoˆl.) (a) The nankeen bird. (b) The sooty albatross. (c) Any grasshopper or locust of the genus (Edipoda; -- so called from the quaking noise made during flight.

Quaker buttons. (Bot.) See Nux vomica. -- Quaker gun, a dummy cannon made of wood or other material; -- so called because the sect of Friends, or Quakers, hold to the doctrine, of nonresistance. -- Quaker ladies (Bot.), a low American biennial plant (Houstonia cÊrulea), with pretty four- lobed corollas which are pale blue with a yellowish center; -- also called bluets, and little innocents.

Quak"er*ess, n. A woman who is a member of the Society of Friends.

Quak"er*ish, a. Like or pertaining to a Quaker; Quakerlike.

Quak"er*ism (?), n. The peculiar character, manners, tenets, etc., of the Quakers.

Quak"er*like (?), a. Like a Quaker.

Quak"er*ly, a. Resembling Quakers; Quakerlike; Quakerish. Macaulay.

Quak"er*y (?), n. Quakerism. [Obs.] Hallywell.

Quake"tail` (?), n. (Zoˆl.) A wagtail.

Quak"i*ness (?), n. The state of being quaky; liability to quake.

Quak"ing, a. & n. from Quake, v.

Quaking aspen (Bot.), an American species of poplar (Populus tremuloides), the leaves of which tremble in the lightest breeze. It much resembles the European aspen. See Aspen. -- Quaking bog, a bog of forming peat so saturated with water that it shakes when trodden upon. -- Quaking grass. (Bot.) (a) One of several grasses of the genus Briza, having slender-stalked and pendulous ovate spikelets, which quake and rattle in the wind. Briza maxima is the large quaking grass; B. media and B. minor are the smaller kinds. (b) Rattlesnake grass (Glyceria Canadensis).