quilt

English

Etymology

From Middle English quilte, quylte, from Anglo-Norman quilte and Old French coilte, cuilte (compare French couette), from Latin culcita. Doublet of quoit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwɪlt/, [kʰw̥ɪlt]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlt

Noun

quilt (plural quilts)

1. A bed covering consisting of two layers of fabric stitched together, with insulation between, often having a decorative design.

   My grandmother is going to sew a quilt.

2. A roll of material with sound-absorbing properties, used in soundproofing.
3. A quilted skirt worn by women.
4. (figurative) Something composed of a variety of stitched-together parts; a patchwork.
   • 1983 April 9, Walta Borawski, “Midler in Boston”, in Gay Community News, page 12:

     Her humor was as bawdy as ever, and evenly placed throughout. Early on […] she alternated alternated jokes and stanzas, providing a wonderful quilt of her musical and story-telling talents.

Derived terms

• continental quilt
• crazy quilt
• honeycomb quilt
• patchwork quilt
• quilt show

Translations

bed covering

• Albanian: jorgan (sq) m
• Assamese: লেপ (lep), কেঁথা (kẽtha)
• Bengali: লেপ (bn) (lep), কাঁথা (bn) (kãtha)
• Bulgarian: юрга̀н (bg) m (jurgàn), кувертю́ра (bg) f (kuvertjúra)
• Catalan: edredó (ca) m
• Cherokee: ᏰᎦᏟ (yegatli), ᎠᏰᎧᎵ (ayekali)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 被 (pei⁵)

  Hokkien: 被仔 (phē-á)

  Mandarin: 被子 (zh) (bèizi), 衾 (zh) (qīn) (literary)

• Czech: peřina (cs) f
• Danish: vattæppe n
• Dutch: quilt (nl) c
• Esperanto: litkovrilo
• Estonian: vatitekk
• Finnish: täkki (fi)
• French: édredon (fr) m, couette (fr) f, courtepointe (fr) f (archaic)
• Galician: colcha f, edredón m
• Georgian: დალიანდაგებული საბანი (daliandagebuli sabani), საბანი (ka) (sabani)
• German: Steppdecke (de) f, only for decorative examples: Quilt m, Federbett (de) n, Daunendecke (de) f, Duvet (de) n
• Greek: πάπλωμα (el) n (páploma)
• Hungarian: paplan (hu)
• Italian: trapunta (it) f
• Japanese: 掛け布団 (ja) (かけぶとん, kakebuton), 衾 (ja) (ふすま, fusuma) (archaic)
• Kazakh: құрақ көрпе (qūraq körpe)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لێفە (lêfe)

  Northern Kurdish: lihêf (ku), yurẍan (ku)

• Latgalian: kouldre f
• Latin: strātum n
• Latvian: vatēta sega
• Maori: kuira
• Maranao: dabar
• Middle English: quilte
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Navajo: golchóón
• Nepali: तन्ना (tannā)
• Persian: لحاف (fa) (lahâf), دواج (fa) (davâj)
• Polish: kołdra (pl) f
• Portuguese: colcha (pt) f, edredom (pt) m, edredão (pt) m, frouxel (pt) m
• Romanian: plapumă (ro) f
• Russian: пери́на (ru) f (perína)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: јорган m, поплун m

  Roman: jorgan (sh) m, poplun (sh) m

• Spanish: colcha (es) f, edredón (es) m, acolchado (es) m, plumón (es) m, cubrelecho m, cuilta f (United States), cobija (es) f
• Swedish: täcke (sv) n, filt (sv) c
• Taos: kwíltoną
• Telugu: బొంత (te) (bonta)
• Thai: ผ้านวม (th) (pâa-nuuam)
• Turkish: yorgan (tr)
• Ukrainian: пери́на f (perýna)
• Uzbek: koʻrpa (uz)
• Vietnamese: duvet (vi)

Verb

quilt (third-person singular simple present quilts, present participle quilting, simple past and past participle quilted)

1. To construct a quilt.
2. To construct something, such as clothing, using the same technique.
   • 1648, Robert Herrick, “Corinna’s Going a Maying”, in Hesperides, or The VVorks both Humane & Divine, London: Printed for John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, […], →OCLC; republished in The Poetical Works of Robert Herrick, London: William Pickering, […], 1825, →OCLC, pages 91–92:

     Get up, get up for shame, the blooming morne / Upon her wings presents the god unshorne. / See how Aurora throwes her faire / Fresh-quilted colours through the aire; / Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see / The dew bespangling herbe and tree.

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “Of the Inhabitants of Lilliput; […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), pages 107–108:

     Two hundred Sempſtreſſes were employed to make me Shirts, and Linen for Bed and Table, all of the ſtrongeft and coarſeſt kind they could get; which, however, they were forced to quilt together in ſeveral Folds, for the thickeſt was ſome degrees finer than Lawn.

3. (UK, slang, obsolete) To beat or thrash.
   • 1884, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker, page 113:

     I am glad, said Mr. Slick, that cussed critter, that schoolmaster, hasn't yet woke up. I'm most afeerd if he had aturned out afore we started, I should have quilted him, for that talk of his last night sticks in my crop considerable hard.

Derived terms

• crazy quilt
• memory quilt
• quilter
• quilting
• quilting bee
• quilting needle
• t-shirt quilt

Translations

to construct a quilt

• Finnish: topata (fi)
• French: matelasser (fr), ouater (fr)
• Georgian: საბნის დალიანდაგება (sabnis daliandageba)
• Italian: imbottire (it), trapuntare
• Spanish: acolchar (es)

to construct something else with quilting technique

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 絎 / 绗 (zh) (hèng)

• Finnish: topata (fi)
• Hungarian: steppel (hu), tűzdel (hu)
• Spanish: acolchar (es)

See also

• batting
• pinking shears
• sew
• cotton

Middle English

Noun

quilt

1. Alternative form of quilte

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

quilt m (definite singular quilten, indefinite plural quiltar, definite plural quiltane)

1. Alternative spelling of kvilt