▪ I. quoit, n.
(kɔɪt, kwɔɪt)
Forms: α. 4–7 coyte, 5–6 (9) coite, 6 c(h)oytte, 7 coyt, coight, 6– coit. β. 7 quoite, quoyt(e, 6– quoit. γ. 6–7 quaite, 7 quayte, queit, 8 quait.
[Of obscure etym.; the variation of form between coit, quoit, and quait prob. indicates a French origin.
Derivation from OF. coitier, quoitier ‘to prick, spur, incite, hasten’, has been suggested, but it does not appear that this vb. had also the sense ‘to throw, hurl’, which would be necessary to make the connexion probable; and the n. coite, quoite means only ‘prick (of spur), encounter, haste’.]
1. a. In orig. and widest sense (now only with ref. to the Greek and Roman discus), a flat disc of stone or metal, thrown as an exercise of strength or skill; spec. in mod. use, a heavy flattish ring of iron, slightly convex on the upper side and concave on the under, so as to give it an edge capable of cutting into the ground when it falls, if skilfully thrown. Also, the ring of rope, rubber, etc. used in deck-quoits and similar games (see 2).
| α c 1440 Promp. Parv. 86/1 Coyter, or caster of a coyte, petreludus. Coyte, petreluda. c 1449 Pecock Repr. i. xx. 120 That men..schulden pleie..bi casting of coitis. 1530 Palsgr. 206/2 Coyte to playe with, palet. Coyte of stone, bricoteav. 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xiii. xxxiv, This like a coight at them Orlando tost. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 28 There is no part of it so broad, but you may cast a Coyte over it. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 56 ¶4 Some of them were tossing the Figure of a Coit. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. ii. 393 Tossed the broad coite or took th' inspiring ale. |
| β c 1611 Chapman Iliad xxiii. 388 Nestors sonne..got as farre before, As any youth can cast a quoyte. 1715–20 Pope Iliad xxiii. 712 Tho' 'tis not thine to hurl the distant Dart, The Quoit to toss. 1783 Crabbe Village 1, Who..made the pond'rous quoit obliquely fall. 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. i, They had learned to wrestle,..to pitch the bar or the quoit. 1870 Bryant Iliad II. xxiii. 360 As far as flies a quoit Thrown from the shoulder of a vigorous youth. |
| γ 1560 [see b]. 1658 J. Jones tr. Ovid's Ibis 144 If Queit thou cast into the open air, let Queit thee kill like Hyacinth the fair. 1711 J. Greenwood Eng. Gram. 188 Coit, quait. |
† b. Phr. a quoit's cast, quoit's distance, the distance to which a quoit is commonly thrown. Obs.
| a 1490 Botoner Itin. (1778) 147 Distans per spacium coytys cast. 1560 Whitehorne Ord. Souldiours xxiv, It would scant be able to drive their pellettes a quaites caste. a 1604 Hanmer Chron. Irel. (1633) 10 The Welch Prophet could not see a quoits cast from him. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 57 Every acute reader..will be ready..to ding the book a coits distance from him. 1791 Cowper Iliad xxiii. 648 Menelaus..fell A full quoit's cast behind. |
c. A curling-stone. rare.
| 1827 Hone Every-day Bk. II. 164 The stones used are called coits, or quoits, or coiting, or quoiting-stones. |
2. pl. (rarely sing.) The sport of throwing the quoit or of playing with quoits; in one modern form of this the quoit is aimed at a pin stuck in the ground, and is intended to fall with the ring surrounding this, or to cut into the ground as near to it as possible. deck-quoits, an imitation of this game, played on shipboard with rings of rope.
| 1388 Act 12 Rich. II, c. 6 §1 Les jeues appelez coytes dyces [etc.]. 1477 Rolls Parlt. VI. 188/1 No persone shuld use any unlawfull Pleys, as Dise, Coyte, Foteball. 1527 Galway Arch. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. V. 402 Plainge at choyttes or stonis. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utop. i. (1895) 57 Lewde, and vnlawfull games, as..tennyes, bolles, coytes. 1592 Lyly Galathea ii. iv, I will now..play at quaites abroade. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. iv. 342 Keelpins, tronkes, coits..are the common recreations of countrey folks. 1708 W. King Cookery 117 He..From Nine-pins, Coits, and from Trap-ball abstains. 1841 Q. Rev. LXVII. 355 Devoting hours on hours to quoits, cricket, and so forth. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iii. 199 Quoit, tennis, ball—no games? 1892 E. Reeves Homeward Bound 22 One of the best amusements provided on shipboard is ‘Quoits’. |
3. transf. † a. A quoit-shaped stone or piece of metal. Obs. rare.
| 1593 P. Nichols Drake Revived (1628) 78 Thirteene bars of siluer, and some few quoits of Gold. Ibid. 79 Promising to give him a fine quoit of gold. a 1635 Corbet Iter Bor. 114 No pompous weight Upon him, but a pebble, or a quayte. |
b. The flat covering stone of a cromlech or cist; also, by extension, a cromlech or cist as a whole.
| 1753 Borlase in Phil. Trans. XLVIII. 87 A flat rock..(which in our country [Cornwall] we call a quoit). Ibid., On the top of this quoit there is a remarkable incision. 1827 G. Higgins Celtic Druids Pref. 49 Under this Quoit I caused to be sunk a pit. 1867 Max Müller Chips (1870) III. xiii. 291 In Bosprennis Cross there was a very large coit or cromlech. 1887 Baring-Gould Red Spider I. ii. 18 A rude granite slab..[which] had been the ‘quoit’ of a great prehistoric dolmen or cromlech. |
c. The backside, the buttocks. Phr. to go for one's quoit, to hurry. Austral. slang.
| 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 58 Quoit, the buttocks. Ibid., Go for one's quoits, to travel quickly, go for one's life. 1951 E. Lambert Twenty Thousand Thieves x. 165 See those jokers sitting on their quoits over there? 1952 J. Cleary Sundowners i. 42 Going for the lick of his coit up the street. 1954 T. A. G. Hungerford Sowers of Wind xiv. 176 Gawd, he blew the tripes outa me for nothing at all, and then he kicks a Nip in the coit. 1972 J. Bailey Wire Classroom x. 82 ‘I think he needs a good kick up the coit,’ says Cromwell. |
† 4. A cast or throw. Obs. rare—1.
| 1706 George a Green in Thoms Prose Rom. (1858) II. 165 With such a tumbling quait, as we call a back somerset. |
5. attrib. and Comb., as quoit-cast, quoit-pitcher, quoit-player, quoit-playing, quoit-thrower, etc.; quoit-like adj.
| 1538 Leland Itin. VI. 56 A Coyte or Stone Cast beneth the Kinges Bridge. 1818 Keats Endym. i. 306 They might watch the quoit-pitchers, intent On either side. 1871 Alabaster Wheel of Law 169 The quoit-like weapon (chakra) the emblem of power of India. 1887 L. E. Upcott Introd. Gk. Sculpt. iv. 57 The most familiar of Myron's works is the Quoit-thrower. Ibid., The quoit-player, who is stooping forward in attitude to throw. |
▪ II. quoit, v.
(kɔɪt, kwɔɪt)
Forms: 5 coytyn, 6 coyte, quayt-, 7 coit, quait, 7– quoit.
[f. the n.]
1. intr. To play at quoits. rare.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 86/1 Coytyn, petriludo. 1530 Palsgr. 488/2 Let us leave all boyes games, and go coyte a whyle. 1570 Levins Manip. 216/18 To coyte, discum mittere. 1684 Dryden Ovid's Met. i. 599 To Quoit, to Run, and Steeds and Chariots drive. 1871 L. W. M. Lockhart Fair to See II. xi. 15 The quoiters quoited. |
2. trans. To throw like a quoit. Also with advbs. as away, down, off, out.
| 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 206 Quoit him downe..like a shoue-groat shilling. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Brave Sea-fight Wks. iii. 39/2 So neere, as a man might quoit a Bisket Cake into her. 1660 Shirley Andromana i. v. 47 Tis more impossible for me to leave thee, Then for this carkase to quait away its grave-stone. 1681 Cotton Poet. Wks. (1765) 326 If you coit a Stone. 1791 Cowper Iliad xxiii. 1042 Leonteus..quoited it next. 1822 Lamb Elia Ser. i. Praise Chimneysweepers, One unfortunate wight..was quoited out of the presence with universal indignation. 1870 Thornbury Tour Eng. I. iv. 77 It was just beyond..where Falstaff was quoited into the Thames. |