Quail

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkweɪl/
• Rhymes: -eɪl

Origin uncertain; perhaps related to Middle Dutch queilen.

Alternative forms

• quele obsolete
• queal

Full definition of quail

Verb

1. (intransitive) To waste away; to fade, wither. from 15th c.
2. (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.
3. (intransitive) To lose heart or courage; to be daunted, fearful. from 16th c.
• LongfellowStouter hearts than a woman's have quailed in this terrible winter.
• 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.
4. (intransitive) To slacken, give way (of courage, faith etc.). from 16th c.

From Middle English quaille, quaile, from Anglo-Norman quaille, from Old Dutch *kwakila (compare West Flemish kwakkel), blend of *kwak ‘quack’ and Proto-Germanic *hwahtilō ‘quail’ (compare dialectal Dutch wachtel, German Wachtel), from a diminutive of Proto-Indo-European *kʷoḱt- ‘quail’ (compare Latin coturnīx, cocturnīx, Lithuanian vaštaka, Sanskrit चातक ‘pied cuckoo’), metathesis of *u̯ortokʷ- ‘quail’ (compare Dutch kwartel, Greek ορτύκι, Persian ورتیج, Sanskrit वर्तका).

Noun

1. 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.
2. (obsolete) A prostitute; so called because the quail was thought to be a very amorous bird.

Derived terms

• common quail
• quailish

Old French coaillier, French cailler, from Latin coagulare. See coagulate.

Verb

1. To curdle; to coagulate, as milk does.