quaker gun
A fake or decoy weapon
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quaker guns
Dummy guns made of wood, for drill purposes or camouflage; an allusion to the Quaker reprobation of the use of force.
quakers
A religious sect so called from their agitations in preaching.
quality
Gentry, the upper classes.
quality of life
General well-being, including physical, emotional, and social aspects
quality over quantity
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
quandary
To be in a quandary: to be puzzled. Also one so over-gorged, as to be doubtful which he should do first, sh--e or spew. Some derive the term quandary from the French phrase qu'en dirai je? what shall I say of it? others from an Italian word signifying a conjuror's circle.
quandary
Described in the dictionaries as a "low word," may fittingly be given here. It illustrates, like "hocus-pocus," and other compound colloquialisms, the singular origin of slang expressions. QUANDARY, a dilemma, a doubt, a difficulty, is from the French, QU’EN DIRAI-JE?—Skinner.
quantum tunnel
to overcome a significant obstacle or challenge
quar
Quarantine.
quarrel-picker
A glazier: from the small squares in casements, called CARREUX, vulgarly quarrels.
quart d'heure
Un mauvais quart d'heure (Fr., a bad quarter of an hour), used of a short, disagreeable experience.
quartered
Divided into four parts; to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, is the sentence on traitors and rebels. Persons receiving part of the salary of an office from the holder of it, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, are said to be quartered on him. Soldiers billetted on a publican are likewise said to be quartered on him.
quartereen
A farthing.
quartereen
A farthing.—Gibraltar term. Italian, QUATTRINO.
quasi historical
Apparently historical; more or less so, or pretending to be so and almost succeeding.
quasi tenant
The tenant of a house sublet. Quasimodo Sunday (kwa zi mo doO. The first Sunday after Easter; so called because the "Introit" of the day begins with these words: Quasi modo geniti infantes (1 Pet. ii, 2).
quean
A slut, or worthless woman, a strumpet.
quean
A strumpet. In Scotland, a lower-class woman. Saxon, CWEAN, a barren old cow.
Queen Ajine's Bounty
A fund created out of the firstfruits and tenths which were part of the papal exactions before the Reformation. The firstfruits are the whole first year's profits of a clerical living, and the tenths are the tenth part annually of the profits of a living. Henry VIII annexed both these to the Crown, but Queen Anne formed them into a perpetual fund for the augmentation of poor livings and the build- ing of parsonages.
Queen Anne
In the first part of her reign he wrote a laudatory poem to the queen, but he says that the latter part deluded his hopes and proved him a false prophet.
Queen Anne is dead
A slighting retort made to the teller of stale news.
Queen Anne style
The style in buildings, furniture, silver-ware, etc., characteristic of her period. Domestic architecture, for instance, was noted for many angles, gables, and ir- regularity of windows.
Queen Anne went to St
Paul's in 1708 to offer thanksgiving for the victory of Oudenarde, disaffected conspirators removed certain screw-bolts from the beams of the cathedral, that the roof might fall on the queen and her suite and kill them.
Queen Anne's dead
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
Queen Anne's fan
Your thumb to your nose and your fingers spread ; cocking a snook.
queen bee
A dominant female in a group or situation
queen dick
To the tune of the life and death of Queen Dick. That happened in the reign of Queen Dick; i.e., never.
queen of beasts
Lioness, symbolizing power and strength
Queen Regnant
A queen who holds the crown in her own right, in contradistinction to a Queen Consort.
queen street
A mart governed by his wife, is said to live in Queen street, or at the sign of the Queen's Head.
Queen's Bench
Bancus Commmris, the bench of Common Pleas. Bandana or Bandanna (ban dan' a) . An Indian word (bandhnu, a mode of dyeing) now usually restricted to handkerchiefs of either silk or cotton having a dark ground of Turkey red or blue, with white or yellow spots. Bandbox, He looks as if he were just out of a.
Queen's Day
November 17th, the day of the accession of Queen Elizabeth I, first publicly celebrated in 1570, and for over three centuries kept as a holiday in Government offices and at Westminster School.
queen's ware
Glazed Wedgwood earthen- ware of a creamy colour.
queen's weather
A fine day for a fete; so called because Queen Victoria was, for the most part, fortunate in having fine weather when she appeared in public.
queen’s tobacco-pipe
The kiln in which all contraband tobacco seized by the Custom-house officers is burned.
queer
An old cant word, once in continual use as a prefix, signifying base, roguish, or worthless,—the opposite of RUM, which signified good and genuine. QUEER, in all probability, is immediately derived from the cant language.
queer as dick's hatband
Out of order, without knowing one's disease.
queer bail
Insolvent sharpers, who make a profession of bailing persons arrested: they are generally styled Jew bail, from that branch of business being chiefly carried on by the sons of Judah. The lowest sort of these, who borrow or hire clothes to appear in, are called Mounters, from their mounting particular dresses suitable to the occasion. CANT.
queer bashing
violence or harassment against someone because of their sexual orientation
queer birds
Rogues relieved from prison, and returned to their old trade.
queer bitch
An odd, out-of-the-way fellow.
queer bluffer
The master of a public-house the resort of rogues and sharpers, a cut-throat inn or alehouse keeper.
queer checkers
Among strolling players, door-keepers who defraud the company, by falsely checking the number of people in the house.
queer cole fencer
A putter off, or utterer, of bad money.
queer cole maker
A maker of bad money.
queer cuffen
A justice of the peace, or magistrate,—a very ancient term, mentioned in the earliest slang dictionary. In this sense, as well as in that of the verb just given, the term is evidently derived from quæro, to inquire, to question. Quiz and quis? have also an undoubted connexion.
queer cuffin
A justice of the peace; also a churl.
queer degen
An ordinary sword, brass or iron hilted.
queer fish
A strange or eccentric person
queer kicks
A bad pair of breeches.
queer mort
A diseased strumpet. CANT.
queer nab
A felt hat, or other bad hat.
queer plungers
Cheats who throw themselves into the water, in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each; and the supposed drowned persons, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket.
queer prancer
A bad, worn-out, foundered horse; also a cowardly or faint-hearted horse-stealer.
queer rooster
An informer that pretends to be sleeping, and thereby overhears the conversation of thieves in night cellars.
queer someone's pitch
to spoil or ruin someone's plans or efforts
Queer Street
In a difficult or precarious financial situation
queer-street
"in QUEER STREET," in difficulty or in want.
quelle surprise
an expression of irony or sarcasm at an unsurprising event