▪ I. quarterly, a. and n.
(ˈkwɔːtəlɪ)
Also 6 -lie.
[f. quarter n. + -ly1.]
A. adj.
1. That takes place, is done, etc., every quarter of a year; relating to, or covering, a quarter of a year. † quarterly waiter = quarter-waiter.
| 1563 in Maitl. Club Misc. (1833) 32 Takand ilk quarter 2250l. As the capitane of the said Gardis quarterlie acquittances proportis. 1688 Miege s.v., The quarterly Seasons of Devotion, called the Ember-weeks. 1727 Boyer Fr.-Angl. Dict. s.v. Quartier, Officier de Quartier, a quarterly Waiter. 1750 Wesley Wks. (1872) II. 205 We had a Quarterly Meeting. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. xix. 158 Quarterly and half-yearly payments. 1862 Sala Ship-chandler 37 Mine is a quarterly hiring, and my quarter is out to-morrow. 1885 Law Times LXXIX. 191/1 The necessity of having a quarterly gaol delivery. |
| transf. 1694 W. Holder On Time i. 22 The Moon..makes also four Quarterly Seasons within her little Year. |
2. Pertaining or relating to a quarter (in other senses).
† quarterly book: (see
quot. 1776).
quarterly wind, a wind on the quarter.
| 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Vent de quartier, a quarterly, or quartering wind. 1776 Johnson Let. to Wetherell 12 Mar. in Boswell II. 14 We must..superadd what is called the quarterly-book, or for every hundred books so charged we must deliver an hundred and four. 1889 Standard 16 Mar. 3/8 The wind..was..quarterly. |
3. Special combinations, as
quarterly-meeting, (
a) in the Society of Friends (Quakers): a general meeting of all the local monthly meetings of a district; (
b) in the Methodist Church: an administrative meeting of society officials within a circuit.
| (a) 1675 in Extracts Minutes Yearly Meeting of Friends, London (1783) 63 Advised that the church's testimonies and judgments against disorderly and scandalous walkers..be recorded in the respective monthly and quarterly meetings. 1675–7 G. Fox Jrnl. (1911) I. 267 About this time [sc. 1656] I was moved to sett uppe ye mens Quarterly meetinges throughout ye nation though in ye north they was setled before. 1837 J. J. Gurney Autobiogr. in J. B. Braithwaite Mem. (1854) I. v. 85, I well remember insisting in our Quarterly Meeting, on the reading of the advice..respecting what ought to be the character of representatives. 1869 Beck & Ball London Friends' Meetings vii. 69 In most parts of the country, the origin of Quarterly Meetings may be traced to those periodical gatherings of Friends from different but adjoining counties, known as General Meetings, and held at intervals with more or less regularity in different places. 1912 W. C. Braithwaite Beginnings of Quakerism xiii. 336 By Quarterly Meetings we must, I think, understand General business meetings for a district. 1965 Friend 19 Nov. 1393/2 We welcome the proposals of the Revision Committee that..the name Quarterly Meeting be changed to General Meeting [etc.]. 1974 G. Hubbard Quaker by Convincement iv. i. 181 General Meetings were until recently Quarterly Meetings, but they now occur as necessary. They..offer an opportunity for Friends from a wide area to meet and discuss matters of common interest. |
| (b) 1750 J. Wesley Jrnl. 22 Aug. (1756) 61 We had a Quarterly Meeting, at which were present the Stewards of all the Cornish Societies. 1807 J. Nightingale Portraiture of Methodism xxix. 303 The Quarterly-meetings are composed of all the travelling-preachers in the circuit where such meetings are held; of the leaders and stewards of the society; and of such of the local-preachers and members as may be invited by any of the travelling-preachers or stewards. 1898 B. Gregory Side Lights on Conflicts of Methodism x. 501 Take..the essential part of our economy which, next to the Class meeting, the Conference, and the Circuit, is the oldest and most central part of our economy—the Quarterly Meeting. 1963 R. E. Davies Methodism App. i. 173 The Circuit consists of a group of Societies in a neighbourhood (some contain as many as fifty, others as few as five or even less); its affairs are directed by the Quarterly Meeting, consisting of the ministers, deaconesses, and local preachers of the Circuit, and the leaders and trustees of each Society. 1972 Methodist Recorder 6 July 16/1 A number of familiar names in the life of the churches will be changed if the proposals are accepted: circuit quarterly meeting becomes circuit meeting. |
B. n. A quarterly review, magazine, etc. Also, lesson notes for Sunday schools, issued every three months.
| 1830 W. Sewall Diary 15 May (1930) 131/1 Methodist quarterly commenced. 1857 [see Christmas number s.v. Christmas n. 4]. 1871 Besant & Rice Ready-money Mort. iv, He had written papers for what were vaguely called the Quarterlies. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal III. i. 10 ‘Oh, there are the new Quarterlies’, seeing a package on the table. 1908 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables xi. 110, I got a quarterly from Mr. Bell for you and you'll go to Sunday School to-morrow. |
▪ II. quarterly, adv. (a., n.) (
ˈkwɔːtəlɪ)
[-ly2.] 1. Every quarter of a year; once in a quarter.
| 1458 in Sharp Cov. Myst. (1825) 208 To go with þe wayts to gader their wages quarterly. 1529 Act 21 Hen. VIII c. 13 §28 Chaplains..daily or quarterly attending. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xli. (1887) 234 That there were no admission into schooles, but foure times in the yeare quarterly. a 1633 Austin Medit. (1635) 254 They be Times that Quarterly bring us in Revenew for our temporall profit. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 295 ¶1 She should have 400l. a Year for Pin-money, which I obliged my self to pay Quarterly. 1878 Jevons Prim. Pol. Econ. 53 Managers, officers, secretaries, and others, are paid quarterly, or sometimes half-yearly. |
2. Her. In the four divisions of a shield formed by a vertical and a horizontal line drawn through the fess point;
usu. with reference to two tinctures, charges, or coats of arms, placed in the diagonally opposite quarters.
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 591 He bare quarterly..the armes of the Dowglass. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. clxviii. 192 He bare syluer and sables quarterly. 1592 W. Wyrley Armorie 91 Sir Neal Loring, who fairly Arms put on Quarterly white and red. 1684 Lond. Gaz. No. 1952/4 The Arms of the said Count, being in an Eschutcheon Four Coats quarterly. 1765 H. Walpole Otranto iii. (1798) 51 A banner with the arms of Vicenza and Otranto quarterly. 1824 Scott St. Ronan's xviii, A white lion for Mowbray, to be borne quarterly, with three stunted or scrog-bushes for Scrogie. 1893 Cussans Her. (ed. 3) 168 Their daughter..is entitled to bear both her Father's and her Mother's Arms quarterly. |
b. With ref. to the division of the shield into quarters, or to blazoning it by quarters.
quarterly-quartered, having one or more quarters divided in four; so
quarterly-quartering.
| 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry v. i. (1611) 238 If they be charged, then I hold it best blazoned quarterly. 1705 Hearne Collect. 21 Dec. (O.H.S.) I. 136 His Arms, quarte[r]ly parted per Cross. 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. Introd. i. 8 This [shield] impaled quarterly, 1. The arms of Scotland. 2. The arms of England. The third as the second. The fourth as the first. 1864 Boutell Her. Hist. & Pop. iii. (ed. 3) 16 The Grand Quarters of which the first and the fourth..are Quarterly-quartered. Ibid. xiv. 142 The Marshalling now proceeds by Quarterly Quartering. |
c. ellipt. as
adj. = divided quarterly, or (by extension) into any number of parts by lines at right angles to each other, as
quarterly of eight; also as
n. = a shield divided or charged quarterly.
| 1869 W. S. Ellis Antiq. Her. x. 228 Aubrey de Vere..transmitted his..coat of Quarterly to his descendants. |
d. quarterly-pierced: (see
quots.).
| 1780 Edmondson Body Her., Gloss. II, Quarterly Pierced, is used to express a square hole in a saltire, a cross millrine, &c. through which aperture the field is seen. 1893 Cussans Her. (ed. 3) 63 If..that part where the limbs [of the cross] are conjoined be removed, it is termed Quarterly-pierced. |
† 3. a. Into four parts.
b. At four equidisant points on a circle.
c. Through each quarter of a town.
Obs. rare.
| a. 1576 Gascoigne Philomene (Arb.) 107 They tore in peces quarterly The corps. |
| b. 1605 Camden Rem. (1637) 167 A Wing with these foure Letters, F.E.L.D. quarterly about it. |
| c. a 1670 Spalding Troub. (1828) I. 199 The baillies went quarterly about, to cause ilk inhabitant subscrive. |