quail
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Etymology 1
Origin uncertain; perhaps compare Middle Dutch queilen.
[edit] Alternative forms
[edit] 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, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 358:
- To tell the truth the prospect rather quailed him – wandering about in the gloomy corridors of a nunnery.
- 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 358:
- (intransitive) To lose heart or courage; to be daunted, fearful. [from 16th c.]
- 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde:
- 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, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p. 25:
- His heart quailed before the enormous pyramidal shape.
- 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde:
- (intransitive) To slacken, give way (of courage, faith etc.). [from 16th c.]
[edit] Translations
To shrink or waver; to become fearful or doubtful
[edit] Etymology 2
From Middle English quaille, quaile, from Anglo-Norman quaille, from Old Dutch *kwakkala (compare West Flemish kwakkel), blend of *kwak (more at quack) and Proto-Germanic *hwahtalō ‘quail’ (compare Dutch (Limburg) kwattel, German Wachtel), 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 (ortýki), Persian vartij’, Sanskrit वर्तका (vartaka)).
[edit] Noun
quail (plural 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.
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
any of several small game birds
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[edit] See also
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle Dutch
- English verbs
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old Dutch
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English nouns
- en:Birds
