▪ I. † quar, n.1
abbrev. of quarry n.1 Obs.
| 1562 T. Phaer æneid ix. E e ij, What murthring quarres of men, what heapes downe throwne,..king Turnus then did giue. 1605 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iii. (Lawe) 643 The Falcon..shall strike; And with the stroke make on the sense-less ground The gut-less Quar..re-bound. |
▪ II. quar, n.2 Obs. exc. dial.
Also 6–7 quarre, 7 quarr, 8 quaar.
[Abbrev. of quarry n.2; still current in W. Midland and S.W. dialects.]
A stone-quarry.
| a 1485 Promp. Parv. 419/1 Quarere (S. quar), lapidicina. 1529 Rastell Pastyme, Hist. Brit. (1811) 105 Stonys owte of anny quarre, or rokk. 1566 Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewel iv. 61 Stedfaster than any Rocke or Quarre of what euer stone it be. 1622 Drayton Poly-olb. xxvi. (1748) 372 She mill-stones from the quarr with sharpen'd picks could get. 1672 W. S. Poems B. Johnson Jr., To Ld. Aston. Aston, a Stone cut from the marble Quar. a 1800 Song in Glouc. Gloss. (1890) 203 The stwons that built George Ridler's Oven..keum from the Bleakeney's Quaar. |
b. attrib. and Comb., as quarman, quar-pit; quar-martin, the sand-martin. dial.
| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. ii. (Magnificence) 1110 The sturdy Quar-man with steel-headed Cones And massie Sledges slenteth out the stones. 1879 Jefferies Wild Life in S.C. 169 These birds are called by the labourers ‘quar⁓martins’, because they breed in holes drilled in the face of the sandy precipices of quarries. 1886 Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk., Quar-man, labourer in a quarry; also the proprietor or lessee of a quarry. Quar-pit, a quarry, usually a small one. |
▪ III. † quar, n.3
abbrev. of quarry n.3 Obs. rare.
| 1600 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. ii. (Magnificence) 1149 What mightie Rowlers, and what massie Cars Could bring so far so many monstrous Quars? [F. quarreaux]. Ibid. 1158 The whole, a whole Quar [F. quarreau] one might rightly tearm. 1617 Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 73 Item xix quarres mendid in the other windowes. |
▪ IV. quar, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
Also 6 querre, 7 quarre.
[Of obscure origin: ? cf. OE. á-cweorran to glut.]
a. trans. To choke or block up (a channel or passage). b. intr. Of a channel: To silt or fill up. Hence ˈquarring vbl. n.
| 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 9 §1 The mouth and hole channell of the saide hauen is so heaped and quarred with stones and robull of balastes of the shippes. 1584–5 Act 27 Eliz. c. 20 §1 Where also the said hauen of Plymmouth..doth dayly querre and fill with the sand of the Tinne-workes and Mynes. 1628 Sir R. Boyle Diary in Lismore Papers (1886) II. 257 Provided..he do nothing to the preiudice of my yron worcks, or stopping or quarreing vp of the River. |
▪ V. quar, v.2 Obs. exc. dial.
[Of unknown origin: cf. quarl v.]
intr. To curdle, coagulate.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. lxxiv. 246 It..keepeth the mylke from quarring and crudding in the brest. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Engrumecer, to clot, to quar like cold blood. |
▪ VI. quar
obs. north. f. where and were (see be v.).