Quest

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kwÉ›st/
• Rhymes: -É›st

Origin

Partly from Anglo-Norman queste, Old French queste ("acquisition, search, hunt"), and partly from their source, Latin quaesta ("tribute, tax, inquiry, search"), noun use of quaesita, the feminine past participle of quaerere ("to ask, seek").

Full definition of quest

Noun

1. A journey or effort in pursuit of a goal (often lengthy, ambitious, or fervent); a mission.
• William ShakespeareCease your quest of love.
• 2013-01, Katie L. Burke, Ecological Dependency, In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.
2. The act of seeking, or looking after anything; attempt to find or obtain; search; pursuit.
   to rove in quest of game, of a lost child, of property, etc.
3. (obsolete) Request; desire; solicitation.
• HerbertGad not abroad at every quest and call
  Of an untrained hope or passion.
4. (obsolete) A group of people making search or inquiry.
• William ShakespeareThe senate hath sent about three several quests to search you out.
5. (obsolete) Inquest; jury of inquest.
• William ShakespeareWhat lawful quest have given their verdict?

Derived terms

• sidequest

Verb

1. To seek or pursue a goal; to undertake a mission or job.
2. To search for; to examine.----