▪ I. quartering, vbl. n.
(ˈkwɔːtərɪŋ)
[f. quarter v. + -ing1.]
The action of the verb.
1. Division into four equal parts; also, division in general.
| 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey i. ix. 23 The quartering of the sweard of Ant-hils, casting their ballas't, and playning their Plots for pasture. 1694 Phil. Trans. XVIII. 70 The halving, trisecting, quartering, &c. is performed by extracting the Square Root,..&c. of the Terms. 1727–41 [see quarterization]. 1895 Pall Mall Gaz. 18 Jan. 10/3 Even in ‘quartering’—the term for breaking up the great nodules of flint—it is not muscle, but eye, that tells. |
2. Her. The dividing of a shield into quarters; the marshalling or bringing in of various coats upon one shield, to denote the alliances of one family with the heiresses of others.
| 1592 W. Wyrley Armorie 4 An other thing that is amisse..is the quartering of many marks in one shield, coate, or banner. 1595 Blanchardyn ii. (1890) 15 Then questioned he with his Master, of the blazonry of armes, and y⊇ quartering of these coates. 1605 Camden Rem. (1636) 225 Quartering of Coates, beganne, first..in Spaine in the Armes of Castile and Leon. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Quartering, in heraldry, the act of dividing a coat into four or more quarters..by parting, couping, &c. Ibid., Colombiere reckons twelve sorts of quarterings. 1893 Cussans Her. (ed. 3) 166 Quartering..was not generally adopted until the end of the Fourteenth Century. The manner in which various coats are brought in, and marshalled by Quartering [etc.]. |
b. pl. The various coats marshalled upon a shield; rarely sing., one of these coats.
| 1719 Ashmole Berkshire II. 214 A Surcoat..of the Quarterings impaled with Fetiplace. 1763 C. Johnston Reverie II. 55, I have nine quarterings more than he. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey vi. iv, He did nothing but..think of the quarterings of his immaculate shield. 1879 Geo. Eliot Theo. Such ii. 42 Some of them..belong to families with many quarterings. |
| transf. 1833 Marryat P. Simple (1863) 229 The pride of colour is very great in the West Indies, and they have as many quarterings as a German prince in his coat of arms. |
3. The assigning of quarters to a person; the action of taking up quarters; † a place in which one is or may be quartered.
| 1625 Bp. R. Montagu App. Cæsar xviii. 236 Heaven..is not..so narrowed..that there cannot bee divers Designations, Regions, Habitations, Mansions, or Quarterings there. 1747 H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 177 A motion for inquiring into useless places and quarterings. |
b. spec. The billeting of soldiers; the fact of having soldiers quartered upon one; the provision of quarters for soldiers.
| 1646 Sir E. Nicholas in N. Papers (Camden) 68 Your Honours frends at Winterborne are well, but much oppressed with quarteringe. 1667 Ormonde MSS. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 58 Your petitioner was heretofore charged with the quartering of two private souldiers. 1705 Lond. Gaz. No. 4098/2 The Inhabitants..much impoverished by the Quartering of Soldiers. 1867 Smiles Huguenots Eng. xii. (1880) 205 In anticipation of the quartering of the dragoons on the family, his wife had gone into concealment. |
4. Build. a. The placing or using of quarters in construction. b. Work formed of quarters. c. Wood in the form, or of the size, of quarters.
| 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 232 Quartering..signifies the putting in of Quarters. Sometimes 'tis us'd to signifie the Quarters themselves. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 580 The braces should be rated..at a superior price to that of the quarterings. 1854 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XV. 255 Farms..built of quartering and weather boarding. |
5. Driving on the quarters of a road.
| 1815 Scott Paul's Lett. (1839) 207 The French postilions..contrived, by dint of quartering and tugging, to drag us safe through. 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 313 No ruts or quarterings now. |
6. The moon's passage from one quarter to another; also = quarter 8 b.
| 1854 L. Tomlinson tr. Arago's Astron. 67 Changes of weather are not more frequent at the moon's quarterings than at any other period. 1880 L. Wallace Ben-Hur 234 Before the new moon..passes into its next quartering. |
7. attrib. and Comb., as quartering-block, quartering-knife; quartering-belt, a belt connecting pulleys which have their axles at right angles to each other (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875); quartering-hammer, a steel-hammer with which the rough masses of flint are shaped for flaking (ibid.); quartering-machine, a machine for boring the wrist-pin holes in driving-wheels a quarter of a circle apart (ibid.); † quartering-money, money paid in lieu of giving quarters to soldiers.
| 1688 in Wodrow Hist. Ch. Scot. (1721) I. 283 Exacting Cess or Quartering-money for more Soldiers than were actually present. 1818 Cobbett Pol. Reg. XXXIII. 425 Why do they..resort to gags, dungeons, halters, axes, and quartering-knives? 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 218 Those who were doomed to the gallows and the quartering block. |
▪ II. quartering, ppl. a.
(ˈkwɔːtərɪŋ)
[f. quarter v. + -ing2.]
That quarters, in senses of the vb.
| 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iv. ii. 11 You tempt the fury of my three attendants, Leane Famine, quartering Steele, and climbing Fire. 1692 Capt. Smith's Seaman's Gram. i. xvi. 76 The Ship goes Lasking, Quartering, Veering, or Large; are terms of the same signification, viz. that she neither goes by a Wind nor before the Wind, but betwixt both. 1702–11 Milit. & Sea Dict. (ed. 4) 11, Quartering, is when a Gun lies so, and may be so travers'd, that it will shoot on the same Line, or Point of the Compass as the Quarter bears. 1765 Museum Rusticum IV. 341 The track was just of a proper breadth for post-chaises and all quartering carriages to run in. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Vent Largue, a large, or quartering wind. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) xx. §815 Through the former [ocean] the wind is aft; through the latter quartering. 1893 Times 13 June 12/1 Sheets trimmed for a quartering breeze. |