Q () the seventeenth letter of the English alphabet, has but one sound (that of k), and is always followed by u, the two letters together being sounded like kw, except in some words in which the u is silent. See Guide to Pronunciation, / 249. Q is not found in Anglo-Saxon, cw being used instead of qu; as in cwic, quick; cwen, queen. The name (k/) is from the French ku, which is from the Latin name of the same letter; its form is from the Latin, which derived it, through a Greek alphabet, from the Ph/nician, the ultimate origin being Egyptian.
Qua (conj.) In so far as; in the capacity or character of; as.
Quab (n.) An unfledged bird; hence, something immature or unfinished.
Quab (v. i.) See Quob, v. i.
Qua-bird (n.) The American night heron. See under Night.
Quacha (n.) The quagga.
Qvacked (imp. & p. p.) of Quack
Quacking (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Quack
Quack (v. i.) To utter a sound like the cry of a duck.
Quack (v. i.) To make vain and loud pretensions; to boast.
Quack (v. i.) To act the part of a quack, or pretender.
Quack (n.) The cry of the duck, or a sound in imitation of it; a hoarse, quacking noise.
Quack (n.) A boastful pretender to medical skill; an empiric; an ignorant practitioner.
Quack (n.) Hence, one who boastfully pretends to skill or knowledge of any kind not possessed; a charlatan.
Quack (a.) Pertaining to or characterized by, boasting and pretension; used by quacks; pretending to cure diseases; as, a quack medicine; a quack doctor.
Quackeries (pl. ) of Quackery
Quackery (n.) The acts, arts, or boastful pretensions of a quack; false pretensions to any art; empiricism.
Quack grass () See Quitch grass.
Quackish (a.) Like a quack; boasting; characterized by quackery.
Quackism (n.) Quackery.
Quackled (imp. & p. p.) of Quackle
Quackling (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Quackle
Quackle (v. i. & t.) To suffocate; to choke.
Quacksalver (n.) One who boasts of his skill in medicines and salves, or of the efficacy of his prescriptions; a charlatan; a quack; a mountebank.
Quad (a.) Alt. of Quade
Quade (a.) Evil; bad; baffling; as, a quade wind.
Quad (n.) A quadrat.
Quad (n.) A quadrangle; hence, a prison.
Quadrae (pl. ) of Quadra
Quadra (n.) The plinth, or lowest member, of any pedestal, podium, water table, or the like.
Quadra (n.) A fillet, or listel.
Quadrable (a.) That may be sqyared, or reduced to an equivalent square; -- said of a surface when the area limited by a curve can be exactly found, and expressed in a finite number of algebraic terms.
Quadragenarious (a.) Consisting of forty; forty years old.
Quadragene (n.) An indulgence of forty days, corresponding to the forty days of ancient canonical penance.
Quadragesima (n.) The forty days of fast preceding Easter; Lent.
Quadragesimal (a.) Belonging to Lent; used in Lent; Lenten.
Quadragesimals (n. pl.) Offerings formerly made to the mother church of a diocese on Mid-Lent Sunday.
Quadrangle (n.) A plane figure having four angles, and consequently four sides; any figure having four angles.
Quadrangle (n.) A square or quadrangular space or inclosure, such a space or court surrounded by buildings, esp. such a court in a college or public school in England.
Quadrangular (a.) Having four angles, and consequently four sides; tetragonal.
Quadrantes (pl. ) of Quadrans
Quadrans (n.) A fourth part of the coin called an as. See 3d As, 2.
Quadrans (n.) The fourth of a penny; a farthing. See Cur.
Quadrant (n.) The fourth part; the quarter.
Quadrant (n.) The quarter of a circle, or of the circumference of a circle, an arc of 90¡, or one subtending a right angle at the center.
Quadrant (n.) One of the four parts into which a plane is divided by the coordinate axes. The upper right-hand part is the first quadrant; the upper left-hand part the second; the lower left-hand part the third; and the lower right-hand part the fourth quadrant.
Quadrant (n.) An instrument for measuring altitudes, variously constructed and mounted for different specific uses in astronomy, surveying, gunnery, etc., consisting commonly of a graduated arc of 90¡, with an index or vernier, and either plain or telescopic sights, and usually having a plumb line or spirit level for fixing the vertical or horizontal direction.
Quadrantal (a.) Of or pertaining to a quadrant; also, included in the fourth part of a circle; as, quadrantal space.
Quadrantal (n.) A cubical vessel containing a Roman cubic foot, each side being a Roman square foot; -- used as a measure.
Quadrantal (n.) A cube.
Quadrat (n.) A block of type metal lower than the letters, -- used in spacing and in blank lines.
Quadrat (n.) An old instrument used for taking altitudes; -- called also geometrical square, and line of shadows.
Quadrate (a.) Having four equal sides, the opposite sides parallel, and four right angles; square.
Quadrate (a.) Produced by multiplying a number by itself; square.
Quadrate (a.) Square; even; balanced; equal; exact.
Quadrate (a.) Squared; suited; correspondent.
Quadrate (a.) A plane surface with four equal sides and four right angles; a square; hence, figuratively, anything having the outline of a square.
Quadrate (a.) An aspect of the heavenly bodies in which they are distant from each other 90¡, or the quarter of a circle; quartile. See the Note under Aspect, 6.
Quadrate (a.) The quadrate bone.
Quadrated (imp. & p. p.) of Quadrate
Quadrating (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Quadrate
Quadrate (a.) To square; to agree; to suit; to correspond; -- followed by with.
Quadrate (v. t.) To adjust (a gun) on its carriage; also, to train (a gun) for horizontal firing.
Quadratic (a.) Of or pertaining to a square, or to squares; resembling a quadrate, or square; square.
Quadratic (a.) Tetragonal.
Quadratic (a.) Pertaining to terms of the second degree; as, a quadratic equation, in which the highest power of the unknown quantity is a square.
Quadratics (n.) That branch of algebra which treats of quadratic equations.
Quadratojugal (a.) Of or pertaining to the quadrate and jugal bones.
Quadratojugal (a.) Of or pertaining to the quadratojugal bone.
Quadratojugal (n.) The quadratojugal bone.
-trixes (pl. ) of Quadratrix
-trices (pl. ) of Quadratrix
Quadratrix (n.) A curve made use of in the quadrature of other curves; as the quadratrix, of Dinostratus, or of Tschirnhausen.
Quadrature (a.) The act of squaring; the finding of a square having the same area as some given curvilinear figure; as, the quadrature of a circle; the operation of finding an expression for the area of a figure bounded wholly or in part by a curved line, as by a curve, two ordinates, and the axis of abscissas.
Quadrature (a.) A quadrate; a square.
Quadrature (a.) The integral used in obtaining the area bounded by a curve; hence, the definite integral of the product of any function of one variable into the differential of that variable.
Quadrature (a.) The position of one heavenly body in respect to another when distant from it 90¡, or a quarter of a circle, as the moon when at an equal distance from the points of conjunction and opposition.
Quadrel (n.) A square piece of turf or peat.
Quadrel (n.) A square brick, tile, or the like.
Quadrennial (a.) Comprising four years; as, a quadrennial period.
Quadrennial (a.) Occurring once in four years, or at the end of every four years; as, quadrennial games.
Quadrennially (adv.) Once in four years.
Quadrennium (n.) A space or period of four years.
Quadri- () A combining form meaning four, four times, fourfold; as, quadricapsular, having four capsules.
Quadribasic (a.) Same as Tetrabasic.
Quadrible (a.) Quadrable.
Quadric (a.) Of or pertaining to the second degree.
Quadric (n.) A quantic of the second degree. See Quantic.
Quadric (n.) A surface whose equation in three variables is of the second degree. Spheres, spheroids, ellipsoids, paraboloids, hyperboloids, also cones and cylinders with circular bases, are quadrics.
Quadricapsular (a.) Having four capsules.
Quadriceps (n.) The great extensor muscle of the knee, divided above into four parts which unite in a single tendon at the knee.
Quadricipital (n.) Of or pertaining to the quadriceps.
Quadricorn (n.) Any quadricornous animal.
Quadricornous (a.) Having four horns, or hornlike organs; as, a quadricornous beetle.
Quadricostate (a.) Having four ribs.
Quadridentate (a.) Having four teeth; as, a quadridentate leaf.
Quadriennial (a.) Same as Quadrennial.
Quadrifarious (a.) Arranged in four rows or ranks; as, quadrifarious leaves.
Quadrifid (a.) Divided, or deeply cleft, into four parts; as, a quadrifid perianth; a quadrifid leaf.
Quadrifoil (a.) Alt. of Quadrifoliate