Adj. (American).—Untrust-*worthy; unsafe.—Matsell (1859).
Quail, subs. (old).—A harlot: see
Tart and cf. Plover, Pheasant,
&c.
1602. Shakspeare, Troilus and Cressida, v. 1. Here's Agamemnon—an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, Prol. to Book IV. With several coated quails, and laced muttons, waggishly singing.
1640. Glapthorne, Hollander;. . . The hot desire of quails, To your's is modest appetite.
Quail-pipe, subs. phr. (old).—1.
A woman's tongue.—B. E.
(c.1696); Grose (1785). Also
(2) the throat.
1692. Dryden, Juvenal, Satire 6. And stretch his quail-pipe till they crack his voice.
1714. Pope, Wife of Bath, 213. To clear my quail-pipe, and refresh my soul, Full oft I drain'd the spicy nut-brown bowl.
Quail-pipe boots, subs. phr. (old).—Boots
full of plaits and wrinkles:
temp. Chas. II.; also quill-pipes.—Grose
(1785).
1602. Middleton, Blurt, Master Constable, ii. 1. A gallant that hides his small-timbered legs with a quail-pipe boot.
Quaint (Queint, Queynte,
Quaynte or Cunt), subs. (old).—The
female pudendum: see
Monosyllable and Cunt.
1383. Chaucer. The Miller's Tale. And prively he caught hire by the queint.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Conno, A womans privie parts or quaint as Chaucer calles it.
Adj. and adv. (old: now recognised).—'Curious, neat, also strange.'—B. E. (c.1696).
Quake-breach, subs. phr. (old).—A
coward.
1608. Withal, Dict. 338. Excors, a hartlesse, a faint-hearted fellow, a quake-breech, without boldnes, spirit, wit, a sot.
Quaker, subs. (old).—1. A member
of the Society of Friends.
Like Puritan (q.v.), which was
ultimately accepted, Quaker originated
in contempt, but it has
never been accepted by the
Society. Whence also Quaker-*dom
= the world of Quakers;
Quakerish = prim, demure, and
so forth.
1664. Butler, Hudibras, II., ii., 219. Quakers that, like to lanterns, bear Their lights within 'em wfll not swear.
1677. Penn, Travels in Holland [Century]. A certain minister in Bremen . .. reproached with the name of Quaker.
1847. Bronte, Jane Eyre, xxiv. Don't address me as if I were a beauty; I am your plain Quakerish governess.
1876. Eliot, Daniel Deronda, xviii. Her rippling hair, covered by a Quakerish net-cap, was chiefly grey.
2. (old).—A rope or pile of excrement; a Turd (q.v.), Fr. rondin and sentinelle. Hence to bury a quaker = to ease the bowels; and quaker's burying-ground = a jakes: see Mrs. Jones.
3. (naval and military).—See quot. 1882: also quaker-gun.
1840. Dana, Before the Mast, xxvii. A Russian government barque, from Asitka, mounting eight guns (four of which we found to be quakers).
1862. New York Tribune, Mar. The . . . impregnability of the position turns out to be a sham . . . Quakers were mounted on the bulwarks.
