quarry
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkwɒɹ.i/
ipa: /ˈk(w)ɔɹ.i/
ipa: /ˈkwɑɹ.i/
rhymes: -ɒɹi
Forms: form: quarries
form: quarrying
form: quarried
form: quarried
form: currie
form: curry
Etymology: From Middle English quarere, from Medieval Latin quarreria (1266), literally a “place where stones are squared”, from Old French quarrière (compare modern French carrière), from Vulgar Latin *quadraria, from Latin quadrō (“I square”), itself from quadra (“a square”), from quattuor (“four”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres (“four”).
Senses: examples: text: The incloſing of this country might alſo be effected, were the landlord to quarry the ſtones, and build the walls at his expence, and the tenant to carry the materials, and pay intereſt for the money advanced by the landlord.
ref: 1794, James Donaldson, “Miscellaneous Observations and Hints for Improvement”, in General View of the Agriculture of the County of Elgin or Moray, Lying between the Spey and the Findhorn; including Part of Strathspey, in the County of Inverness. With Observations on the Means of Its Improvement, … Drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement, London: Printed by C. Clarke, →OCLC, page 34:
text: The stone of which this town and church was built, is somewhat of the nature of "rotten limestone,"—is quite light in color,—quarries out regularly and easily,—is soft, when first quarried, but becomes hard on exposure to the air.
ref: 1847, George C. Furber, chapter IV, in The Twelve Months Volunteer; or, Journal of a Private in the Tennessee Regiment of Cavalry, in the Campaign in Mexico, 1846–7 … Engravings from Drawings by the Author, Cincinnati, Oh.: J. A. & U. P. James, →OCLC; republished as The Twelve Months Volunteer: Journal of a Private in the Tennessee Regiment of Cavalry (Applewood's Military History Series), Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Publishers, 2009, →ISBN, page 150:
text: In Lexington, which was just then establishing itself as the principal town in Kentucky, he found work quarrying stone for a tavern keeper. Once again, the wages were low, and his employer "strove by every means in his power to take advantage of me."
ref: 1999, Stephen A. Aron, “‘The Poor Men to Starve’: The Lives and Times of Workingmen in Early Lexington”, in Craig Thompson Friend, editor, The Buzzel about Kentuck: Settling the Promised Land, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 175:
text: Today the extractive industry utilizes sand and gravel reserves and quarries stone in Wingdale.
ref: 2008, Donna P. Hearn, “The Iron and Marble Industries”, in Dover (Images of America), Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 77:
glosses: To obtain (or mine) stone by extraction from a quarry.
examples: text: They quarried out new, interesting facts about ancient Egypt from old papyri.
text: The second part of Aristotle's work requires little description. […] It has been largely quarried by the grammarians and lexicographers of later ages, from whom modern students of Athenian antiquities have derived their information; […]
ref: 1892, F[rederic] G[eorge] Kenyon, “Introduction”, in Aristotle, edited by F. G. Kenyon, ΑΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ [ATHĒNAIŌN POLITEIA]: Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens, 3rd rev. edition, Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press, →OCLC; republished Clark, N.J.: Lawbook Exchange, 2004, →ISBN, page xlviii:
text: They will be guided and inspired by such utterance as Parrington's diagnosis of Sinclair Lewis, where he quarries out a vein of his own enduring liberalism.
ref: 1927, Vernon Louis Parrington, The Beginnings of Critical Realism in America: 1860–1920 (Main Currents in American Thought; III), New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace, →OCLC; republished as Bruce Brown, “Introduction to the Transaction Edition”, in The Beginnings of Critical Realism in America, New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2013, →ISBN:
glosses: To extract or slowly obtain by long, tedious searching.
Synonyms: sense: obtain stone by extraction
word: mine
sense: extract by searching
word: dig
sense: extract by searching
word: dig up
sense: extract by searching
word: unearth
Derived terms: word: quarrier
word: quarrying