quarter
See also: quarter-
English

A US quarter, 25 cent coin.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkwɔːtə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈk(w)ɔɹ.tɚ/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
Via French quartier, from Latin quartarius, from quartus. Compare Spanish cuarto (“room, quarters; quarter”).
Adjective
quarter (not comparable)
- Pertaining to an aspect of a quarter.
- (chiefly) Consisting of a fourth part, a quarter (1/4, 25%).
- a quarter hour; a quarter century; a quarter note; a quarter pound
- (chiefly) Related to a three-month term, a quarter of a year.
- A quarter day is one terminating a quarter of the year.
- A quarter session is one held quarterly at the end of a quarter.
Antonyms
Usage notes
Often used in a combining form quarter-.
Derived terms
- quarter blanket
- quarter bottle
- quarter century
- quarter crack
- quarter day
- quarter final
- quarter horse
- quarter-hour
- quarter moon
- quarter note
- quarter pound
- quarter session
- quarter waiter
- quarter year
Noun
quarter (countable and uncountable, plural quarters)
- Any fourth of something, particularly:
- A quarter-dollar, divided into 25 cents; the coin of that value minted in the United States or Canada.
- (now chiefly financial) A quarter of the year, 3 months; a season.
- (historical) The quarter-ton or tun, divided into 8 bushels, the medieval English unit of volume and weight named by the Magna Carta as the basis for measures of wine, ale, and grain
- 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 204:
- One of these is 1 Hen. V, cap. 10, defining the quarter of corn [i.e., grain] to be eight struck bushels, and putting fines on purveyors who take more.
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- (historical) The quarter-yard, divided into 4 nails, an obsolete English unit of length long used in the cloth trade
- (historical) The watch: A quarter of the night, nominally 3 hours but varying over the year.
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Mark VI:
- And aboute the fourth quartre of the nyght, he cam unto them, walkinge apon the see [...].
- 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Mark VI:
- (heraldry) A charge occupying a fourth of a coat of arms, larger than a canton and normally on the upper dexter side, formed by a perpendicular line from the top meeting a horizontal line from the side.
- (basketball) A period into which a game is divided. (usually 8, 10 or 12 minutes according to the rules).
- quarterfinal
- Any substantial fraction of something less than half, particularly:
- A division or section of a town or other area, whether or not it constituted a fourth of the whole.
- (usually in the plural) A living place, from which:
- (military slang, now rare) A quartermaster; a quartermaster sergeant.
- 1925, Ford Madox Ford, “Parade's End”, in No More Parades, Penguin, published 2012, page 360:
- Tietjens said: ‘Send the Canadian sergeant-major to me at the double….’ to the quarter.
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- (uncountable, obsolete except in phrase no quarter) Amity, friendship, concord; (now) accommodation given to a defeated opponent, mercy.
- (Can we date this quote?), Shakespeare, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom.
- (Can we date this quote?), Francis Bacon, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- I knew two that were competitors for the secretary's place, […] and yet kept good quarter between themselves.
- 1955, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, page 1110:
- Hard fighting and long labour they had still; for the Southrons were bold men and grim, and fierce in despair, and the Easterlings were strong and war-hardened and asked for no quarter.
-
- (military slang, now rare) A quartermaster; a quartermaster sergeant.
- The part on either side of a horse's hoof between the toe and heel, the side of its coffin.
- 1877, Anna Sewell, chapter 23, in Black Beauty:
- […] at last she kicked right over the carriage pole and fell down, after giving me a severe blow on my near quarter.
-
- (nautical) The aftmost part of a vessel's side, roughly from the last mast to the stern.
Synonyms
- (one of four equal parts): fourth, fourth part, ¼
- (period of three consecutive months): trimester
- (section of a town): district; ward; neighborhood; ghetto (pejorative); borough (New York City); capitoulate (Toulouse, historical)
Derived terms
- fat quarter
- premiership quarter
- Q1
- Q2
- Q3
- Q4
- quarterly
- quarter of
- quarter of an hour
- quarter past
- quarters
- quarter to
- Swan Quarter
Related terms
Translations
one of four equal parts
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coin worth 25 cents
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period of three months
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section of a town
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Verb
quarter (third-person singular simple present quarters, present participle quartering, simple past and past participle quartered)
- (transitive) To divide into quarters; to divide by four.
- (transitive) To provide housing for military personnel or other equipment.
- Quarter the horses in the third stable.
- (intransitive) To lodge; to have a temporary residence.
- (transitive) To quartersaw.
- 1758, Thomas Hale, A Compleat Body Of Husbandry, page 333:
- But there is, as in other woods, a great deal of difference between this and the quartered timber.
-
Synonyms
- (to have a temporary residence): stay over, stop; See also Thesaurus:sojourn
Antonyms
- quadruple (multiply by four)
Translations
to divide into quarters; to divide by four
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to provide housing
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to quartersaw — see quartersaw
See also
Etymology 2
Borrowed from French cartayer.
Verb
quarter (third-person singular simple present quarters, present participle quartering, simple past and past participle quartered)
- (obsolete) To drive a carriage so as to prevent the wheels from going into the ruts, or so that a rut shall be between the wheels.
- (Can we date this quote?) De Quincey.:
- Every creature that met us would rely on us for quartering
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Catalan
Pronunciation
French
Etymology
From English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kwaʁ.tɛʁ/
Further reading
- “quarter” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Old French
Alternative forms
- quartier (chiefly mainland Europe)
Noun
quarter m (oblique plural quarters, nominative singular quarters, nominative plural quarter)
- (chiefly Anglo-Norman) quarter (one fourth)
References
- quarter on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub
- Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle (1881) (quartier, supplement)
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