Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Quaint
Quaint
,Adj.
1.
Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily.
[Obs.]
Clerks be full subtle and full
quaint
. Chaucer.
2.
Characterized by ingenuity or art; finely fashioned; skillfully wrought; elegant; graceful; nice; neat.
[Archaic]
“ The queynte ring.” “ His queynte spear.” Chaucer.
“ A shepherd young quaint.” Chapman.
Every look was coy and wondrous
quaint
. Spenser.
To show bow
quaint
an orator you are. Shakespeare
3.
Curious and fanciful; affected; odd; whimsical; antique; archaic; singular; unusual;
as,
quaint
architecture; a quaint
expression.Some stroke of
quaint
yet simple pleasantry. Macaulay.
An old, long-faced, long-bodied servant in
quaint
livery. W. Irving.
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.
Webster 1828 Edition
Quaint
QUAINT
,Adj.
1.
Nice; scrupulously and superfluously exact; having petty elegance; as a quaint phrase; a quaint fashion.To show how quaint an orator you are.
2.
Subtle; artful. Obs.3.
Fine-spun; artfully framed.4.
Affected; as quaint fopperies.5.
In common use, odd; fanciful; singular; and so used by Chaucer.Definition 2024
quaint
quaint
English
Adjective
quaint (comparative quainter, superlative quaintest)
- (obsolete) Of a person: cunning, crafty. [13th-19th c.]
- 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 2:
- But you, my Lord, were glad to be imploy'd, / To shew how queint an Orator you are.
- 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 2:
- (obsolete) Cleverly made; artfully contrived. [14th-19th c.]
- 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IX:
- describe races and games, / Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, / Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, / Bases and tinsel trappings [...].
- 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IX:
- (now dialectal) Strange or odd; unusual. [from 14th c.]
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.4:
- Till that there entered on the other side / A straunger knight, from whence no man could reed, / In quyent disguise, full hard to be descride […].
- 1808, Walter Scott, Marmion XX:
- Lord Gifford, deep beneath the ground, / Heard Alexander's bugle sound, / And tarried not his garb to change, / But, in his wizard habit strange, / Came forth,—a quaint and fearful sight!
- 1924, Time, 17 Nov 1924:
- What none would dispute though many smiled over was the good-humored, necessary, yet quaint omission of the writer's name from the whole consideration.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.4:
- (obsolete) Overly discriminating or needlessly meticulous; fastidious; prim. [15th-19th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:
- She, nothing quaint / Nor 'sdeignfull of so homely fashion, / Sith brought she was now to so hard constraint, / Sate downe upon the dusty ground anon [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.7:
- Pleasingly unusual; especially, having old-fashioned charm. [from 18th c.]
- 1815, Jane Austen, Emma:
- I admire all that quaint, old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; modern ease often disgusts me.
- 2011, Ian Sample, The Guardian, 31 Jan 2011:
- The rock is a haven for rare wildlife, a landscape where pretty hedgerows and quaint villages are bordered by a breathtaking, craggy coastline.
- 1815, Jane Austen, Emma:
Synonyms
- See also Wikisaurus:fastidious
Derived terms
Translations
old-fashioned charm
|
interestingly strange
|
incongruous, inappropriate or illogical
cleverness or ingenuity
|
|
Etymology 2
A variant of **** (possibly as a pun).
Noun
quaint (plural quaints)
- (archaic) The ****. [from 14th c.]
- c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Wife of Bath's Tale", Canterbury Tales:
- And trewely, as myne housbondes tolde me, / I hadde þe beste queynte þat myghte be.
- 2003, Peter Ackroyd, The Clerkenwell Tales, p. 9:
- The rest looked on, horrified, as Clarice trussed up her habit and in open view placed her hand within her queynte crying, ‘The first house of Sunday belongs to the sun, and the second to Venus.’
- c. 1390, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Wife of Bath's Tale", Canterbury Tales: