▪ I. quitter, quittor, n.1 Now rare.
(ˈkwɪtə(r))
Forms: 3–4 quiture, 4 quyt-, 5 quet-, 5–6 quytt-, (5 -ur), 6–7 quitture, (7 -ur); 4 qwetour, quet-, quitoure, 5 quyteour, whitour, whytoure, 7 quittour; 5 quetor, 7–9 quittor; 4–5 quyter(e, quytter(e, 5 quet-, quiter, 6– quitter, (8 coutre).
[Perh. a. OF. quiture, cuiture cooking, decoction, etc. (but app. not recorded in the specific sense of the Eng. word).]
1. Pus; suppurating matter; a purulent discharge from a wound or sore. Obs. exc. Jamaican.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 8596 Heo..wess hor vet & clene þe quiture [v.rr. qwetour, quetoure] out soȝte. c 1305 St. Edmund 159 in E.E.P. (1862) 75 Moche del his bodi orn in quitoure & in blode. 1382 Wyclif Job ii. 8 [Job] with a sherd scrapide awei the quyture. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 37 Þilke quyttere & blood schulde lette þe helynge of þe wounde. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 525/2 Whytowre, of a soore, sanies. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. Interpret. Strange Wordes, Colde apostemes utterynge quytture or fylthe. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 424 The filthy excrements, attyr, and quitter, that gather in sores and wounds. 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 305 The nourishing juice..emptying it self by those corrupted sores in a quitture or Sanies. 1689 Hickeringill Ceremony Monger Concl. i. Wks. 1716 II. 454 To let the corrupted Quitter out. 1943, 1952 in Cassidy & Le Page Dict. Jamaican Eng. 1961 F. G. Cassidy Jamaica Talk i. 4 The ginger-grower in Christiana who spoke of the quitter (pus) in a wound..which the OED traces no later than 1689 in this sense. |
| fig. c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 231 So shulde men..thriste oute þo quyter of hor olde synnes. |
2. Farriery. = quitter-bone (see 4).
| 1703 Lond. Gaz. No. 3964/4 A Quitter lately taken out of his further Foot behind. 1794 Sporting Mag. III. 34 Sandcracks, quittors, strains in the back-sinews. 1843 Youatt Horse xix. 394 Quittor..has been described as being the result of neglected or bad tread, or over-reach. 1900 Times 2 Oct. 13/4 He examined the mare and found it suffering from a bad quitter which was discharging matter. 1917 W. Owen Let. 21 Feb. (1967) 437 Certain cases of Thrush, Quitter, and such suppurations go one worse than the battlefield-exhalations. |
† 3. The dross of tin. Obs. rare—0.
| 1674 Blount Glossogr. (ed. 4). 1736 Ainsworth Lat. Dict. [Hence in Johnson and mod. Dicts.] |
4. Comb. † quitter-bone, an ulcer or suppurating sore on the coronet of a horse's hoof. Obs. (See also twitter-bone.)
| 1598 Florio, Seta,..a disease in a horse called a quitter-bone. 1614 B. Jonson Barth. Fair ii. v, She has..the quitter bone i' the tother legge. 1639 T. de la Grey Expert Ferrier ii. xvii. 298 A Quitter-bone..commeth to a horse by some hurt he hath taken in the foot. 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4771/4 Lately cured of a Coutre Bone on the off Foot behind. 1755 J. Shebbeare Lydia (1769) I. 337 A roan horse, with..a small quitter bone on the farther leg before. 1798 Lawrence Treat. Horses II. 520 A quittor, formerly called by our farriers a quittor bone. |
Hence † ˈquitterish, † ˈquitterous, † ˈquittery adjs., containing, or of the nature of, pus. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. lxii. (1495) 278 It bredeth a drye scabbe and not quyttery. 1543 Traheron Vigo's Chirurg. ii. i. iii. 48 Apostemes,..quitterous, ful of water. 1582 Batman On Barthol. xxix. 97 In whom the spettle is quitterie and venemous. 1668 Culpepper & Cole Barthol. Anat. ii. v. 95 Of a quittorish nature. |
▪ II. quitter, n.2
(ˈkwɪtə(r))
[f. quit v. + -er1.]
† 1. One who frees, discharges, etc. Obs. rare—0.
| 1611 Cotgr., Quiteur, a quitter, acquiter, freer, discharger. [1736 Ainsworth Lat. Dict. Hence in Johnson, and later Dicts.] |
2. One who, or that which, ‘quits’, goes away, shirks, etc. orig. U.S.
| 1881 Standard 7 Sept. 5/2 They may perhaps have a right to the term ‘quitter’, to stigmatise an animal that will not make a fight. 1887 Columbus (Ohio) Disp. 31 May, The mighty pressure gives confidence that the [gas] well will not be a quitter. 1897 Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 581/1 Leggins may be fat, but he's no quitter. 1908 ‘O. Henry’ in American Mag. LXVII. 69/2, I can stand the fabulous monster that..blows hot birds and cold bottles with the same breath. But I can't stand a quitter. 1923 Auckland Weekly News 11 Oct. 16/6 He dropped in on me one evening and started to upbraid me for being a quitter. 1931 Sun (Baltimore) 12 Jan. 8/6 George Muehlebach..who..became a quitter in the draft fight via the secret mail-vote route is still filled with fight. 1937 G. Frankau More of Us viii. 94 Stout lad was Jack, and last to play the quitter From lady's side for any casual stares. 1949 Sat. Even. Post 15 Oct. 141/3 It's been worn by great battlers in every sport, but never by a quitter or dirty player. 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 6 July 8-a/5 Records show about 14 per cent of the benefits paid in 1975 were to voluntary quitters. |
▪ III. † ˈquitter, v.1 Obs.
Forms: 4 quyter, 5 quittur, whytowryn.
[f. quitter n.1]
intr. To form pus; to fill with pus. Also pass. in same sense. Hence ˈquittering ppl. a. (in quot. fig.).
| 1382 Wyclif Wisd. vi. 25 Ne with the quyterende enuye weie I shal han. c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 9 If þat tweye woundis ben euene I-quytturid. Ibid. 207 Whanne þe enpostym is quitturid & sufficiently rotid. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 525/2 Whytowryn, as soorys, idem quod whelyn. |
▪ IV. ˈquitter, v.2 orig. Sc. arch. rare.
[Prob. of Scand. origin: cf. MSw. qvitra, Sw. qvittra, Da. kvidre to chirp, twitter.]
a. To twitter. b. To flicker, quiver.
| 1513 Douglas æneis ii. viii. 63 With forkit tong intil hir moutht quitterand. Ibid. xii. Prol. 241 The gukgo galis, and so quytteris the quaill. 1872 Mrs. Stowe Oldtown Fireside Stories 64 There was the old tom-turkey a struttin' and a sidlin' and a quitterin', and a floutin' his tail-feathers in the sun. Ibid. 156 An old tom-turkey, that'll strut and gobble and quitter, and drag his wings on the ground. 1935 E. R. Eddison Mistress ix. 171 Shall then these ram-cats of Meszria reap all the honour, whiles we of the Queen's true party sit quittering here? Ibid. xix. 394 Then strike. Not to stand quittering like quails when the event walketh on razors' edges. |
▪ V. quitter
obs. f. whiter, comp. of white.