Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Nautical: Sailing large but not before the wind.
  • Being on the quarter, or between the line of the keel and the beam, abaft the latter: as, a quartering wind.
  • In archery, making an acute angle with the range: said of the wind.
  • noun The change of the moon from one quarter to the next.
  • noun The act of dividing into fourths.
  • noun The act of assigning quarters, as for soldiers.
  • noun Quarters; lodging; a station.
  • noun In heraldry, the marshaling or disposal of various escutcheons in one, in order to denote the several alliances of one family with the heiresses of others.
  • noun In carpentry, a series of small vertical timber posts, rarely exceeding 4 by 3 inches, used to form a partition for the separation or boundary of apartments.
  • noun In gunnery, the position or placing of a piece of ordnance when it is so traversed that it will shoot on the same line, or on the same point of the compass, as that on which the ship's quarter has its bearing.
  • noun In mech., the adjustment of cranks on a single shaft at an angle of 90° with each other; also, the boring of holes for wrist-pins in locomotive driving-wheels at right angles with each other.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Naut.) Coming from a point well abaft the beam, but not directly astern; -- said of waves or any moving object.
  • adjective (Mach.) At right angles, as the cranks of a locomotive, which are in planes forming a right angle with each other.
  • noun obsolete A station.
  • noun Assignment of quarters for soldiers; quarters.
  • noun The division of a shield containing different coats of arms into four or more compartments.
  • noun One of the different coats of arms arranged upon an escutcheon, denoting the descent of the bearer.
  • noun (Arch.) A series of quarters, or small upright posts. See Quarter, n., 1 (m) (Arch.)
  • noun a block on which the body of a condemned criminal was quartered.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of quarter.
  • noun The act of providing housing for military personnel, especially when imposed upon the home of a private citizen.
  • noun The method of capital punishment where a criminal is cut into four pieces.
  • noun heraldry The division of a shield containing different coats of arms into four or more compartments.
  • noun heraldry One of the different coats of arms arranged upon an escutcheon, denoting the descent of the bearer.
  • noun architecture A series of quarters, or small upright posts.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a coat of arms that occupies one quarter of an escutcheon; combining four coats of arms on one shield usually represented intermarriages
  • noun living accommodations (especially those assigned to military personnel)
  • noun dividing into four equal parts

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word quartering.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.