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Webster 1913 Edition


Quoth

Quoth

(kwōth or kwŭth)
,
Verb.
T.
[AS.
cweðan
, imp
cwæð
, pl.
cwǣdon
; akin to OS.
queðan
, OHG.
quethan
,
quedan
, Icel.
kveða
, Goth.
qiþan
. √22. Cf.
Bequeath
.]
Said; spoke; uttered; – used only in the first and third persons in the past tenses, and always followed by its nominative, the word or words said being the object;
as,
quoth I
,
quoth he
.
“Let me not live, quoth he.”
Shak.

Webster 1828 Edition


Quoth

QUOTH

,
Verb.
I.
[L. inquio, contracted.]
To say; to speak. This verb is defective, being used only in the first and third persons in the present and past tenses, as quoth I, quoth he, and the nominative always follows the verb. It is used only in ludicrous language, and has no variation for person, number or tense.

Definition 2024


quoth

quoth

English

Verb

quoth

  1. (archaic or literary) simple past tense of quethe; said
    • 19th century, Jean Ingelow - The Brides of Enderby
      “Pull, if ye never pull’d before;
      Good ringers, pull your best,” quoth he.
    • 1845 Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven
      Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!
      Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”
    • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V
      “Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow,” quoth Robin, “thou seemest happy this merry morn.”
      “Ay, that am I,” quoth the jolly Butcher, “and why should I not be so? Am I not hale in wind and limb? Have I not the bonniest lass in all Nottinghamshire? And lastly, am I not to be married to her on Thursday next in sweet Locksley Town?”