Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Quail
Quail
,Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Qualled
; p. pr. & vb. n.
Qualling
.] [AS.
cwelan
to die, perish; akin to cwalu
violent death, D. kwaal
pain, G. qual
torment, OHG. quelan
to suffer torment, Lith. gelti
to hurt, gela
pain. Cf. Quell
.] 1.
To die; to perish; hence, to wither; to fade.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
2.
To become quelled; to become cast down; to sink under trial or apprehension of danger; to lose the spirit and power of resistance; to lose heart; to give way; to shrink; to cower.
The atheist power shall
Stouter hearts than a woman’s have
quail
, and confess his fears. I
. Taylor
.Stouter hearts than a woman’s have
quailed
in this terrible winter. Longfellow.
Syn. – to cower; flinch; shrink; quake; tremble; blench; succumb; yield.
Quail
,Verb.
T.
[Cf.
Quell
.] To cause to fail in spirit or power; to quell; to crush; to subdue.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
Quail
,Verb.
I.
To curdle; to coagulate, as milk.
[Obs.]
Holland.
Quail
,Noun.
[OF.
quaille
, F. caille
, LL. quaquila
, qualia
, qualea
, of Dutch or German origin; cf. D. kwakkel
, kwartel
, OHG. wahtala
, G. wachtel
.] 1.
(Zool.)
Any gallinaceous bird belonging to
Coturnix
and several allied genera of the Old World, especially the common European quail (Coturnix communis
), the rain quail (Coturnix Coromandelica
) of India, the stubble quail (Coturnix pectoralis
), and the Australian swamp quail (Synoicus australis
). 2.
(Zool.)
Any one of several American partridges belonging to
Colinus
, Callipepla
, and allied genera, especially the bobwhite (called Virginia quail
, and Maryland quail
), and the California quail (Calipepla Californica
). 3.
(Zool.)
Any one of numerous species of Turnix and allied genera, native of the Old World, as the Australian painted quail (
Turnix varius
). See Turnix
. 4.
A prostitute; – so called because the quail was thought to be a very amorous bird.
[Obs.]
Shak.
Bustard quail
(Zool.)
, a small Asiatic quail-like bird of the genus
– Turnix
, as Turnix taigoor
, a black-breasted species, and the hill bustard quail
(Turnix ocellatus
). See Turnix
. Button quail
(Zool.)
, one of several small Asiatic species of Turnix, as
– Turnix Sykesii
, which is said to be the smallest game bird of India. Mountain quail
. See under
– Mountain
. Quail call
, a call or pipe for alluring quails into a net or within range.
– Quail dove
(Zool.)
, any one of several American ground pigeons belonging to
– Geotrygon
and allied genera. Quail hawk
(Zool.)
, the New Zealand sparrow hawk (
– Hieracidea Novæ-Hollandiæ
). Quail pipe
. See
– Quail call
, above. Quail snipe
(Zool.)
, the dowitcher, or red-breasted snipe; – called also
– robin snipe
, and brown snipe
. Sea quail
(Zool.)
, the turnstone.
[Local, U. S.]
Webster 1828 Edition
Quail
QUAIL
,Verb.
I.
1.
To sink into dejection; to languish; to fail in spirits. [Little used.]2.
To fade; to wither. Obs.QUAIL
, v.i.To curdle; to coagulate; as milk.
QUAIL
,Verb.
T.
QUAIL
, n.A bird of the genus Tetrao or grouse kind, or according to Latham's arrangement, of the genus Perdix, in which he comprehends the partridge and quail. In New England, the name is applied to a peculiar species of the perdix, which is called partridge in the middle states, but it is neither the partridge nor quail of Europe.
Definition 2024
Quail
quail
quail
See also: Quail
English
Alternative forms
- quele (obsolete)
- queal
Verb
quail (third-person singular simple present quails, present participle quailing, simple past and past participle quailed)
- (intransitive) To waste away; to fade, wither. [from 15th c.]
- (transitive, now rare) To frighten, daunt (someone). [from 16th c.]
- 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia: or, Buried Alive: A Novel, London; Boston, Mass.: Faber and Faber, 978-0-571-11297-5; republished in The Avignon Quintet, London: Faber, published 1992, 978-0-571-16328-1, page 358:
- To tell the truth the prospect rather quailed him – wandering about in the gloomy corridors of a nunnery.
- 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia: or, Buried Alive: A Novel, London; Boston, Mass.: Faber and Faber, 978-0-571-11297-5; republished in The Avignon Quintet, London: Faber, published 1992, 978-0-571-16328-1, page 358:
- (intransitive) To lose heart or courage; to be daunted, fearful. [from 16th c.]
- 1904, Seymour S. Tibbals, The Puritans or The Captain of Plymouth: A Comic Opera in Three Acts, [Franklin, Oh.]: Seymour S. Tibbals, OCLC 20218813, Act II, scene I, page 13:
- Stouter hearts than a woman's have quailed in this terrible winter. Yours is tender and trusting, and needs a stronger one to lean on; so I have come to you now, with an offer of marriage.
- 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., OCLC 86121123:
- Mr. Utterson had already quailed at the name of Hyde; but when the stick was laid before him, he could doubt no longer; broken and battered as it was, he recognized it for one that he had himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll.
- 1949, George Orwell, 1984: A Novel, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 7158857, page 25:
- His heart quailed before the enormous pyramidal shape.
- 2016 February 20, “Obituary: Antonin Scalia: Always right”, in The Economist:
- His colleagues quailed when, in 1986, he first sat on the court as a brash 50-year-old whose experience had been mostly as a combative government lawyer: a justice who, in that sanctum of columns and deep judicial silence, was suddenly firing questions like grapeshot.
-
- (intransitive) Of courage, faith, etc.: to slacken, give way. [from 16th c.]
Translations
to shrink or waver; to become fearful or doubtful
Etymology 2
The common quail (Coturnix coturnix)
From Middle English quaille, quaile, from Anglo-Norman quaille, from Old Dutch *kwakila, Frankish *kwakla (compare West Flemish kwakkel), blend of *kwak ‘quack’ and Proto-Germanic *hwahtilō ‘quail’ (compare dialectal Dutch wachtel, German Wachtel), from a diminutive of Proto-Indo-European *kʷoḱt- ‘quail’ (compare Latin coturnīx, cocturnīx, Lithuanian vaštaka, Sanskrit चातक (cātaka) ‘pied cuckoo’), metathesis of *u̯ortokʷ- ‘quail’ (compare Dutch kwartel, Greek ορτύκι (ortúki), Persian ورتیج (vartij’), Sanskrit वर्तका (vartaka)).
Noun
quail (plural quail or quails)
- Any of various small game birds of the genera Coturnix, Anurophasis or Perdicula in the Old World family Phasianidae or of the New World family Odontophoridae.
- (uncountable) The meat from this bird eaten as food.
- (obsolete) A prostitute, so called because the quail was thought to be a very amorous bird.
- c. 1602, William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. Excellently Expressing the Beginning of their Loues, with the Conceited Wooing of Pandarus, Prince of Licia, London: Imprinted by G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, and are to be sold at the spred Eagle in Paules Church-yeard, ouer against the great North doore, published 1609, OCLC 606515252, Act V, scene 1:
- Her's Agamemnon, an honeſt fellow inough and one that loues quailes, but hee has not ſo much braine as eare-wax, […]
-
Derived terms
Translations
any of several small game birds
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See also
Etymology 3
From Old French coaillier, French cailler, from Latin coagulare. See coagulate.
Verb
quail (third-person singular simple present quails, present participle quailing, simple past and past participle quailed)
- To curdle or coagulate, as milk does.
- 1601, Pliny the Elder; Philemon Holland, trans., The Historie of the World: Commonly Called the Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus; translated into English by Philemon Holland, London: Printed by Adam Islip, OCLC 931247183:
- [Laser is given] to such as haue supped off and drunk quailed milke, that is cluttered within their stomack.
-