Quat, subs. (old).—A dwarfish person: also (occasionally) a shabster (q.v.).
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, v. 1. I have rubbed this young quat almost to the sense, And he grows angry.
1609. Dekker, Gull's Horn Book, vii. Whether he be a young quat of the first yeare's revennew, or some austere and sullen-faced steward.
1613. Webster, Devil's Law Case. O young quat! incontinence is plagued in all creatures in the world.
Verb. (common).—To ease the bowels: also to go to quat.
Quatch, adj. (old).—Flat.
1598. Shakspeare, All's Well, ii. 2, 18. Like a barber's chair that fits all buttocks; the pin-buttock, the quatch-buttock,. . . or any buttock.
Quatro, adj. (showmen's).—Four.
[From the It.]
Quaver, subs. (common).—A
musician.
Quavery-wavery, adj. and adv.
(old: dialectical).—Undecided.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 338. Standing . . . quavery-wavery between life and death.
Quay, adj. (American thieves').—Unsafe;
untrustworthy.
Quean (or Queen), subs.—1.
Primarily a woman: without regard
to character or position.
Hence (2) = a slut, hussy (q.v.),
or strumpet: to play the
quean = to play the whore.—B.
E. (c.1696); Bailey (1725);
Grose (1785). Whence queanry
= (1) womankind; (2) harlotry;
and (3) the estate of whoredom.
1362. Langland, Piers Plowman, ix. 46. At churche in the charnel cheorles aren yuel to knowe, Other a knyght fro a knaue other a queyne fro a queene.
1383. Chaucer, Manciple's Tale, Prol., 18. Hastow with som quene at nyght yswonke.
[?] Scott, Chron. S. P., iii. 148. Quhair hurdome ay unhappis With queney, cannis and coppis.
1591. Harington, Ariost., xxxv. 26. Penelope was but a queane.
1593. Nashe, Christ's Teares [Grosart, Works (18..), iv. 224]. Every queane vaunts herselfe of some or other man of Nobility.
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, iv. 2. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean.
1596. Jonson, Ev. Man in Humour, iv. 8. Kib. A bitter quean! Come, we will have you tamed. Ibid. (1601), Poetaster, iv. 3. She's a curst quean, tell him, and plays the scold behind his back.
. . . Watkyns in Heywards Quint., i. 143 [Nares]. If once the virgin conscience plays the quean, We seldom after care to keep it clean.
1611. Middleton, Roaring Girl, ii. 1. There are more queans in this town of their own making than of any man's provoking.
c.1613. Fletcher, Nice Valour, ii. 1 [Dyce, x. 316]. A man can in his lifetime make but one woman, But he may make his fifty queans a month.
1614. Times Whistle [E. E. T. S.], 45. Flavia because her meanes are somewhat scant, Doth sell her body to relieve her want, Yet scornes to be reputed as a quean.
1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., I. ii. iv. 6. A base quean. Ibid., III. ii. i. 2. Rahab, that harlot began to be a professed quean at ten years of age. Ibid., III. ii. ii. 1. They are commonly lascivious, and if women, queans. Ibid., III. ii. ii. 5. I perceived . . . by the naked queans, that I was come into a bawdy-house.
1634. Ford, Perkin Warbeck, ii. 3. I never was ambitious Of using congees to my daughter-queen—A queen! perhaps a quean!
1731. Coffey, Devil to Pay, i. 2. Where are my sluts? Ye drabs, ye queans—lights there!
1777. Sheridan, School for Scandal, iii. 3. Here's to the flaunting extravagant quean.
