Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter Q - Page 1
Q () The seventeenth letter of the English alphabet, has but one sound (that of k), and is always followed by u, the two letters together being sounded like kw, except in some words in which the u is silent. See Guide to Pronunciation, [sect] 249. Q is not found in Anglo-Saxon, cw being used instead of qu; as in cwic, quick; cwen, queen. The name (k[=u]) is from the French ku, which is from the Latin name of the same letter; its form is from the Latin, which derived it, through a Greek alphabet, from the Ph[oe]nician, the ultimate origin being Egyptian.
Etymologically, q or qu is most nearly related to a (ch, tch), p, q, and wh; as in cud, quid, L. equus, ecus, horse, Gr. ?, whence E. equine, hippic; L. quod which, E. what; L. aquila, E. eaqle; E. kitchen, OE. kichene, AS. cycene, L. coquina.
Q (n.) The 17th letter of the Roman alphabet [syn: Q, q].
Q () A very high level language by Per Bothner based on lazy generalised sequences. Q has lexical scope, and some support for logic programming[?] and constraint programming. The language includes small subsets of Common Lisp and Scheme.
Q () Was a test-bed for programming language ideas. Where APL uses arrays for looping, Q uses generalised sequences which may be infinite and may be stored or calculated on demand. It has macros, primitives to run programs, and an interactive command language.
Q () Is implemented in C++, and comes with an interpreter, compiler framework, libraries, and documentation. It runs on Linux and SUN-4 and should work on any 32-bit Unix.
(2000-05-22)
Qiviut (n.) <美> 北極麝牛身上的絨毛 Is an Inuit word describing the finest and warmest layer of fur or down on Arctic animals, including muskox, Arctic Hare and Arctic Fox. Muskox qiviut fibres are long enough to be spun into pure qiviut yarn or blended with other fibres such as superfine merino and silk to complement the rare qualities of muskox qiviut. Qiviut is an ultra-fine hair and not like sheep wool that has microscopic barbs. Some people mistakenly use the term 'muskox wool' for muskox qiviut. Muskox qiviut is most well known of the arctic fibres that Nunavut Qiviut spins into yarn.
Qua (conj.) In so far as; in the capacity or character of; as.
It is with Shelley's biographers qua biographers that we have to deal. -- London Spectator.
Compare: Quob
Quob (v. i.) [Cf. Quaver.] [Written also quop and quab.] To throb; to quiver. [Local & Vulgar]
Quab (n.) An unfledged bird; hence, something immature or unfinished. -- Ford.
Quab (v. i.) See Quob, v. i.
Qua-bird (n.) (Zool.) The American night heron. See under Night.
Quacha (n.) The quagga.
Qvacked (imp. & p. p.) of Quack.
Quacking (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Quack.
Quack (v. i.) (v. t.) (v. i.) 嘎嘎叫，當庸醫，誇大廣告 To utter a sound like the cry of a duck.
Quack (v. i.) To make vain and loud pretensions; to boast. " To quack of universal cures." -- Hudibras.
Quack (v. i.) To act the part of a quack, or pretender.
Quack (n.) [C] 庸醫，江湖醫生；冒充內行的人；騙子；鴨叫聲 The cry of the duck, or a sound in imitation of it; a hoarse, quacking noise. -- Chaucer.
Quack (n.) A boastful pretender to medical skill; an empiric; an ignorant practitioner.
Quack (n.) Hence, one who boastfully pretends to skill or knowledge of any kind not possessed; a charlatan.
Quacks political; quacks scientific, academical. -- Carlyle.
Quack (a.) [Z] 庸醫的；冒充內行醫病的；冒牌的；吹牛的；騙人的 Pertaining to or characterized by, boasting and pretension; used by quacks; pretending to cure diseases; as, a quack medicine; a quack doctor.
Quack (a.) Medically unqualified; "a quack doctor."
Quack (n.) An untrained person who pretends to be a physician and who dispenses medical advice.
Quack (n.) The harsh sound of a duck.
Quack (v.) Utter quacking noises; "The ducks quacked."
Quack (v.) Act as a medical quack or a charlatan.
Quack. () One, who, without sufficient knowledge, study or previous preparation, and without the diploma of some college or university, undertakes to practice medicine or surgery, under the pretence that he possesses secrets in those arts.
Quack. () He is criminally answerable for his unskillful practice, and also, civilly to his patient in certain cases. Vide Mala praxis; Physician.
Quackeries (n. pl. ) of Quackery.
Quackery (n.) The acts, arts, or boastful pretensions of a quack; false pretensions to any art; empiricism. -- Carlyle.
Quackery (n.) Medical practice and advice based on observation and experience in ignorance of scientific findings [syn: quackery, empiricism].
Quackery (n.) The dishonesty of a charlatan [syn: charlatanism, quackery].
Quitch grass (Bot.) A perennial grass ({Agropyrum repens) having long running rootstalks, by which it spreads rapidly and pertinaciously, and so becomes a troublesome weed. Also called couch grass, quack grass, quick grass, twitch grass. See Illustration in Appendix.
Quack grass () (Bot.) See Quitch grass.
Quack grass (n.) European grass spreading rapidly by creeping rhizomes; naturalized in North America as a weed [syn: dog grass, couch grass, quackgrass, quack grass, quick grass, witch grass, witchgrass, Agropyron repens].
Quackish (a.) Like a quack; boasting; characterized by quackery.
Quackism (n.) Quackery.
Quackled (imp. & p. p.) of Quackle.
Quackling (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Quackle.
Quackle (v. i. & t.) To suffocate; to choke.
Quacksalver (n.) One who boasts of his skill in medicines and salves, or of the efficacy of his prescriptions; a charlatan; a quack; a mountebank.
Quad (a.) Alt. of Quade.
Quade (a.) Evil; bad; baffling; as, a quade wind.
Quad (n.) A quadrat.
Quad (n.) A quadrangle; hence, a prison.
Quadrae (n. pl. ) of Quadra.
Quadra (n.) The plinth, or lowest member, of any pedestal, podium, water table, or the like.
Quadra (n.) A fillet, or listel.
Quadrable (a.) (Math.) That may be sqyared, or reduced to an equivalent square; -- said of a surface when the area limited by a curve can be exactly found, and expressed in a finite number of algebraic terms.
Quadragenarious (a.) Consisting of forty; forty years old.
Quadragene (n.) (R. C. Ch.) An indulgence of forty days, corresponding to the forty days of ancient canonical penance.
Quadragesima (n.) (Eccl.) The forty days of fast preceding Easter; Lent.
Quadragesima Sunday, The first Sunday in Lent, about forty days before Easter.
Quadragesima (n.) The first Sunday in Lent [syn: Quadragesima, Quadrigesima Sunday].
Quadragesimal (a.) Belonging to Lent; used in Lent; Lenten.
Quadragesimals (n. pl.) Offerings formerly made to the mother church of a diocese on Mid-Lent Sunday.
Quadrangle (n.) (Geom.) 四角形，四邊形，中院 A plane figure having four angles, and consequently four sides; any figure having four angles.
Quadrangle (n.) A square or quadrangular space or inclosure, such a space or court surrounded by buildings, esp. such a court in a college or public school in England.
Quadrangle (n.) A four-sided polygon [syn: {quadrilateral}, {quadrangle}, {tetragon}].
Quadrangle (n.) A rectangular area surrounded on all sides by buildings [syn: {quad}, {quadrangle}].
Quadrangular (a.) 四邊形的 Having four angles, and consequently four sides; tetragonal. -- Quad*ran"gu*lar*ly, adv.
Quadrangular (a.) Of or relating to or shaped like a quadrangle.
Quadrantes (n. pl. ) of Quadrans.
Quadrans (n.) [L.] (Rom. Antiq.) A fourth part of the coin called an as. See 3d As, 2.
Quadrans (n.) The fourth of a penny; a farthing. See Cur.
Quadrans, civil law. The fourth part of the whole. Hence the heir exquadrante; that is to say, the fourth-part of the whole.
Quadrant (n.) The fourth part; the quarter. [Obs.] -- Sir T. Browne.
Quadrant (n.) (Geom.) The quarter of a circle, or of the circumference of a circle, an arc of 90[deg], or one subtending a right angle at the center.
Quadrant (n.) (Anal. (Geom.) One of the four parts into which a plane is divided by the coordinate axes. The upper right-hand part is the first quadrant; the upper left-hand part the second; the lower left-hand part the third; and the lower right-hand part the fourth quadrant.
Quadrant (n.) An instrument for measuring altitudes, variously constructed and mounted for different specific uses in astronomy, surveying, gunnery, etc., consisting commonly of a graduated arc of 90? with an index or vernier, and either plain or telescopic sights, and usually having a plumb line or spirit level for fixing the vertical or horizontal direction.
Gunner's quadrant, an instrument consisting of a graduated limb, with a plumb line or spirit level, and an arm by which it is applied to a cannon or mortar in adjusting it to the elevation required for attaining the desired range.
Gunter's quadrant. See Gunter's quadrant, in the Vocabulary.
Hadley's quadrant, A hand instrument used chiefly at sea to measure the altitude of the sun or other celestial body in ascertaining the vessel's position. It consists of a frame in the form of an octant having a graduated scale upon its arc, and an index arm, or alidade pivoted at its apex.
Mirrors, called the index glass and the horizon glass, are fixed one upon the index arm and the other upon one side of the frame, respectively. When the instrument is held upright, the index arm may be swung so that the index glass will reflect an image of the sun upon the horizon glass, and when the reflected image of the sun coincides, to the observer's eye, with the horizon as seen directly through an opening at the side of the horizon glass, the index shows the sun's altitude upon the scale; -- more properly, but less commonly, called an octant.
Quadrant of altitude, An appendage of the artificial globe, consisting of a slip of brass of the length of a quadrant of one of the great circles of the globe, and graduated.
It may be fitted to the meridian, and being movable round to all points of the horizon, serves as a scale in measuring altitudes, azimuths, etc.
Quadrant (n.) A quarter of the circumference of a circle [syn: quadrant, quarter-circle].
Quadrant (n.) Any of the four areas into which a plane is divided by two orthogonal coordinate axes.
Quadrant (n.) The area enclosed by two perpendicular radii of a circle
Quadrant (n.) A measuring instrument for measuring altitude of heavenly bodies
Quadrant. () In angular measures, a quadrant is equal to ninety degrees. Vide Measure.
Quadrantal (a.) (Geom.) Of or pertaining to a quadrant; also, included in the fourth part of a circle; as, quadrantal space.
Quadrantal triangle, A spherical triangle having one side equal to a quadrant or arc of 90[deg].
Quadrantal versor, A versor that expresses rotation through one right angle.
Quadrantal (n.) [L.] (Rom. Antiq.) A cubical vessel containing a Roman cubic foot, each side being a Roman square foot; -- used as a measure.
Quadrantal (n.) A cube. [R.]
Quadrat (n.) (Print.) A block of type metal lower than the letters, -- used in spacing and in blank lines. [Abbrev. quad.]
Quadrat (n.) An old instrument used for taking altitudes; -- called also geometrical square, and line of shadows.
Quadrate (a.) Having four equal sides, the opposite sides parallel, and four right angles; square.
Figures, some round, some triangle, some quadrate. -- Foxe.
Quadrate (a.) Produced by multiplying a number by itself; square. " Quadrate and cubical numbers." -- Sir T. Browne.
Quadrate (a.) Square; even; balanced; equal; exact. [Archaic] " A quadrate, solid, wise man." -- Howell.
Quadrate (a.) Squared; suited; correspondent. [Archaic] " A generical description quadrate to both." -- Harvey.
Quadrate bone (Anat.), A bone between the base of the lower jaw and the skull in most vertebrates below the mammals.
In reptiles and birds it articulates the lower jaw with the skull; in mammals it is represented by the malleus or incus.
Quadrate (n.) (Geom.) A plane surface with four equal sides and four right angles; a square; hence, figuratively, anything having the outline of a square.
At which command, the powers militant That stood for heaven, in mighty quadrate joined. -- Milton.
Quadrate (n.) (Astrol.) An aspect of the heavenly bodies in which they are distant from each other 90? or the quarter of a circle; quartile. See the Note under Aspect, 6.
Quadrate (n.) (Anat.) The quadrate bone.
Quadrated (imp. & p. p.) of Quadrate.
Quadrating (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Quadrate.
Quadrate (v. i.) To square; to agree; to suit; to correspond; -- followed by with. [Archaic]
The objections of these speculatists of its forms do not quadrate with their theories. -- Burke.
Quadrate (v. t.) To adjust (a gun) on its carriage; also, to train (a gun) for horizontal firing.
Quadrate (a.) Having four sides and four angles.
Quadrate (n.) A cubelike object.
Quadrate (n.) A square-shaped object.
Quadratic (a.) Of or pertaining to a square, or to squares; resembling a quadrate, or square; square.
Quadratic (a.) (Crystallog.) Tetragonal.
Quadratic (a.) (Alg.) Pertaining to terms of the second degree; as, a quadratic equation, in which the highest power of the unknown quantity is a square.
Quadratic (a.) Of or relating to or resembling a square; "quadratic shapes."
Quadratic (a.) Of or relating to the second power; "quadratic equation."
Quadratic (n.) An equation in which the highest power of an unknown quantity is a square [syn: quadratic equation, quadratic].
Quadratic (n.) A polynomial of the second degree [syn: quadratic, quadratic polynomial].
Quadratics (n.) That branch of algebra which treats of quadratic equations.
Quadratojugal (a.) (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the quadrate and jugal bones.
Quadratojugal (a.) (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the quadratojugal bone.
Quadratojugal (n.) The quadratojugal bone.
Quadratojugal bone (Anat.), A bone at the base of the lower jaw in many animals.
-trixes (n. pl. ) of Quadratrix.
-trices (n. pl. ) of Quadratrix.
Quadratrix (n.) (NL.) (Geom.) A curve made use of in the quadrature of other curves; as the quadratrix, of Dinostratus, or of Tschirnhausen.
Quadrature (n.) (Math.) The act of squaring; the finding of a square having the same area as some given curvilinear figure; as, the quadrature of a circle; the operation of finding an expression for the area of a figure bounded wholly or in part by a curved line, as by a curve, two ordinates, and the axis of abscissas.
Quadrature (n.) A quadrate; a square. -- Milton.
Quadrature (n.) (Integral Calculus) The integral used in obtaining the area bounded by a curve; hence, the definite integral of the product of any function of one variable into the differential of that variable.
Quadrature (n.) (Astron.) The position of one heavenly body in respect to another when distant from it 90? or a quarter of a circle, as the moon when at an equal distance from the points of conjunction and opposition.
Quadrature of the moon (Astron.), The position of the moon when one half of the disk is illuminated.
Quadrature of an orbit (Astron.), A point in an orbit which is at either extremity of the latus rectum drawn through the empty focus of the orbit.
Quadrature (n.) The construction of a square having the same area as some other figure.
Quadratus (n.) 方肌 Any muscle of the body that has four sides.
Quadrel (n.) A square piece of turf or peat. [Prov. Eng.]
Quadrel (n.) A square brick, tile, or the like.
Quadrennial (a.) Comprising four years; as, a quadrennial period.
Quadrennial (a.) Occurring once in four years, or at the end of every four years; as, quadrennial games.
Quadrennially (adv.) Once in four years.
Quadrennium (n.) A space or period of four years.
Quadrennium (n.) A period of four years.
Quadri- () A combining form meaning four, four times, fourfold; as, quadricapsular, having four capsules.
Quadribasic (a.) (Chem.) Same as Tetrabasic.
Quadrible (a.) Quadrable. [R.]
Quadric (a.) (Math.) Of or pertaining to the second degree.
Quadric (n.) (Alg.) A quantic of the second degree. See Quantic.
Quadric (n.) (Geom.) A surface whose equation in three variables is of the second degree. Spheres, spheroids, ellipsoids, paraboloids, hyperboloids, also cones and cylinders with circular bases, are quadrics.
Quadric (n.) A curve or surface whose equation (in Cartesian coordinates) is of the second degree [syn: quadric, quadric surface].
Quadricapsular (a.) (Bot.) Having four capsules.
Quadriceps (n.) (Anat.) The great extensor muscle of the knee, divided above into four parts which unite in a single tendon at the knee.
Quadriceps (n.) A muscle of the thigh that extends the leg [syn: quadriceps, quadriceps femoris, musculus quadriceps femoris, quad].
Quadricipital (n.) (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the quadriceps.
Quadricorn (n.) (Zool.) Any quadricornous animal.
Quadricornous (a.) (Zool.) Having four horns, or hornlike organs; as, a quadricornous beetle.
Quadricostate (a.) Having four ribs.
Quadridentate (a.) Having four teeth; as, a quadridentate leaf.
Quadriennial (a.) Same as Quadrennial.
Quadrifarious (a.) Arranged in four rows or ranks; as, quadrifarious leaves. -- Loudon.
Quadrifid (a.) Divided, or deeply cleft, into four parts; as, a quadrifid perianth; a quadrifid leaf. Quadrifoil
Quadrifoil (a.) Alt. of Quadrifoliate.