quarter
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈk(w)ɔː.tə/
ipa: /ˈk(w)ɔɹ.tɚ/
ipa: [ˈk(w)ɔɹ.ɾɚ]
ipa: /ˈk(w)oː.tɘ/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)
Forms: form: quarters
Etymology: From Middle English quarter, from Anglo-Norman quarter, from Latin quartarius, from quartus. Compare Spanish cuarto (“room, quarters; quarter”). Doublet of quartier.
Senses: examples: text: I ate a quarter of the pizza.
text: A majority of companies in the S&P 500 have at least one woman on their boards, but only about a quarter have more than two, according to a study from PwC.
ref: 2018 September 30, Julia Carpenter and Jackie Wattles, “California has a new law: No more all-male boards”, in CNN Business:
text: For companies such as Trans Pennine Express, it will be even harder. It has the unwelcome claim to being Britain's worst train operator, with recent statistics from the Office of Rail and Road showing it cancelled nearly a quarter of its services in February, with lack of available train crew a real problem.
ref: 2023 April 5, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Pay deal a positive result”, in RAIL, number 980, page 3:
glosses: A fourth part of something.
Each of four equal parts into which something can be divided; a fourth part.
examples: text: One of these is 1 Hen. V, cap. 10, defining the quarter of corn to be eight struck bushels, and putting fines on purveyors who take more.
ref: 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 204:
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A measure of capacity used chiefly for grain or coal, varying greatly in quantity by time and location.
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A fourth part of a pound; approximately 113 grams.
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A measure of length; originally a fourth part of an ell, now chiefly a fourth part of a yard.
examples: text: And aboute the fourth quartre of the nyght, he cam unto them, walkinge apon the see [...].
ref: 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Mark vj:[48]:
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A fourth part of the night; one of the watches or divisions of the night.
examples: text: The FBI began publishing national quarterly crime reports last year, but has not done so for the first two quarters of 2021, stating that they require at least 60% of agencies to submit NIBRS data in order to publish quarterly data.
ref: 2021 September 27, Priya Krishnakumar, “Murders rose sharply in 2020 but data is lacking across much of the country”, in CNN:
text: The Shanghai-based company reported Wednesday that net profit soared 246% to 28 billion yuan ($3.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2024, more than double the average analyst estimate of 12.62 billion yuan ($1.7 billion), according to LSEG data.
ref: 2024 May 23, Laura He, “Bargain-hungry Americans are flocking to Temu and making its Chinese owner very rich”, in CNN Business:
topics: business
finance
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A fourth part of the year; 3 months; a term or season.
examples: text: An interesting feature of the church is the invisible clock, which you can hear thumping away as you enter. Constructed in 1525, it is one of the oldest timepieces in England. It chimes the hours and the quarters, and every three hours it plays a hymn. But it has no faces.
ref: 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 163:
topics: time
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A fourth part of an hour; a period of fifteen minutes, especially with reference to the quarter before or after the hour.
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A fourth part of a hundredweight.
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A fourth part of a coat of arms, or the charge on it, 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.
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A quarter-dollar, divided into 25 cents; the coin of that value minted in the United States or Canada.
synonyms: two bits
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A fourth part of something.
One of four equal periods into which a game is divided.
glosses: A fourth part of something.
A quarter of an acre or 40 roods.
qualifier: Chester
examples: text: I am to haste, / And all who under me thir Banners wave, / Homeward with flying march where we possess / The Quarters of the North […].
ref: 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: Place or position.
A region or place.
glosses: Place or position.
Each of four parts into which the earth or sky is divided, corresponding to the four cardinal points of the compass.
glosses: Place or position.
A division or section of a town or city, especially having a particular character of its own, or associated with a particular group etc.
glosses: Place or position.
One's residence or dwelling-place; (in plural) rooms, lodgings, especially as allocated to soldiers or domestic staff.
examples: text: “I'll tell you something, too,” retorted the captain, duskily flushing. “I wouldn't sail this ship for the man you are, if you went upon your knees. I've dealt with gentlemen up to now.”
“I can tell you the names of a number of gentlemen you'll never deal with any more, and that's the whole of Longhurst's gang,” said Jim. “I'll put your pipe out in that quarter, my friend. Here, rout out your traps as quick as look at it, and take your vermin along with you. I'll have a captain in, this very night, that's a sailor, and some sailors to work for him.”
ref: 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 10, in The Wrecker:
glosses: Place or position.
A topic or area of endeavour.
examples: text: I was one morning walking the deck, when Rogers, whose watch it was, sitting upon the quarter, called to me in his usual style, ‘Come here, Bill.’
ref: 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 80
text: “My men, the schooner coming up on our weather quarter is a Portuguese pirate.”
ref: 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Place or position.
The aftmost part of a vessel's side, roughly from the last mast to the stern.
examples: text: [A]t last she kicked right over the carriage pole and fell down, after giving me a severe blow on my near quarter.
ref: [1877], Anna Sewell, “A Strike for Liberty”, in Black Beauty: […], London: Jarrold and Sons, […], →OCLC, part II, page 106:
topics: farriery
hobbies
horses
lifestyle
pets
sports
glosses: Place or position.
The part on either side of a horse's hoof between the toe and heel, the side of its coffin.
examples: text: opposition to the policy came from an unexpected quarter, as well as from certain quarters which had historically opposed it
text: all quarters of the socialist movement; praise from Conservative quarters
text: It is something to have that sacerdotal position so frankly recognized; but, I repeat, the ground of objection is an extraordinary one, coming as it does from a Liberal quarter in politics.
ref: 1897, National and English Review, page 499:
text: V. Gene Robinson's installation as an Episcopal bishop was greeted largely by silence from gay quarters.
ref: 2003, The Advocate, page 44:
text: […] and principled criticism of Obama from black quarters.
ref: 2016, Michael Eric Dyson, The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN:
glosses: A section (of a population), especially one having a particular set of values or interests.
examples: text: In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
text: I knew two that were competitors for the secretary's place, […] and yet kept good quarter between themselves.
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Cunning”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
glosses: Relations between people.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1955, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, page 1110:
glosses: Accommodation given to a defeated opponent; mercy; exemption from being killed.
topics: American-football
ball-games
football
games
hobbies
lifestyle
rugby
sports
glosses: A quarterback.
examples: text: Tietjens said: ‘Send the Canadian sergeant-major to me at the double….’ to the quarter.
ref: 1925, Ford Madox Ford, “Parade's End”, in No More Parades, Penguin, published 2012, page 360:
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A quartermaster; a quartermaster sergeant.
glosses: A quarterfinal.
Synonyms: sense: one of four equal parts
word: fourth
sense: one of four equal parts
word: fourth part
sense: one of four equal parts
word: one-fourth
sense: one of four equal parts
word: one-quarter
sense: one of four equal parts
word: ¼
sense: period of three consecutive months
word: trimester
sense: period of three consecutive months
word: cour
sense: section of a town
word: district
sense: section of a town
word: ward
sense: section of a town
word: neighborhood
sense: section of a town
word: ghetto
sense: section of a town
word: borough
sense: section of a town
word: capitoulate
Derived terms: academic quarter
black quarter
case quarter
close quarter
close-quarter
Empty Quarter
false quarter
fat quarter
fifth quarter
first quarter
French Quarter
gay quarter
grand quarter
Hartington Middle Quarter
Hartington Nether Quarter
Hartington Town Quarter
hindquarter
Jewellery Quarter
lamb's quarters
last quarter
Latin Quarter
Lowside Quarter
no quarter
one-quarter
one quarter
on the quarter
premiership quarter
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
quarter-ass
quarter-assed
quarter badge
quarter bathroom
quarter belt
quarter bill
quarter block
quarter-bloke
quarter-caste
quarter-century
quarter circle
quarter court
quarter-day
quarter deck
quarter-deck
quarter eagle
quarter-eater
quarter-evil
quarter farthing
quarter-final
quarter-finalist
quarter glass
quarter gunner
quarter-hourly
quarter-ill
quarter jack
quarter-life crisis
quarter light
quarterly
quarter-master
quarter-miler
quarter-muncher
quarter nettings
quarter of
quarter of an hour
quarter-phase
quarter-pipe
quarter pipe
quarter-plate
quarter point
quarter-pounder
quarter rest
quarter-round
quarters
quarter-saw
quarter saw
quarter-section
quarterstaff
quarterstave
quarter-sucker
quarter time
quarter-time
quarter tone
quarter-up price
quarter water
quarter-wavelength film
quarter-wave plate
quarter window
quarter-witted
quarter-yearly
quarter-zip
Swan Quarter
three-quarter
three-quarter back
three-quarter bathroom
three-quarter brother
three-quarter coat
three-quarter sibling
three-quarter sister
three quarter time
three quarter-time
three-quarter-time
three-quarter time
tri-quarter
who put a quarter in you
Related terms: quart