quarter-day
[quarter n. 8 a.]
One of the four days fixed by custom as marking off the quarters of the year, on which tenancy of houses usually begins and ends, and the payment of rent and other quarterly charges falls due.
In England and Ireland the quarter-days are Lady Day (March 25), Midsummer Day (June 24), Michaelmas (Sept. 29), and Christmas (Dec. 25). The name is also sometimes applied to the Scottish terms of Candlemas (Feb. 2), Whit-sunday (May 15), Lammas (Aug. 1), and Martinmas (Nov. 11).
| 1480 in Eng. Gilds 315 Ther shall be iiij quarter dayys that euery Brother..shall assemble at oure comen hall. 1566 Haryngton in Leisure H. (1884) 630/2 All which sommes shal be duly paide each quarter-day. 1596 Edw. III, iii. ii, What, is it quarter-day, that you remove, And carry bag and baggage too? 1660 Fuller Mixt Contempl. (1841) 197 A gentleman had two tenants, whereof one,..repaired to his landlord on the quarter-day. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. 124 Rent..for the occupation of the land since the last quarter day. 1805 Southey Ball. & Metr. T. Poet. Wks. VI. 80, I was idle, and quarter-day came on, And I had not the rent in store. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge xiii, The twenty-fifth of March,..one of those unpleasant epochs termed quarter-days. |
| fig. 1641 Brome Joviall Crew ii. Wks. 1873 III. 382 If ever any just or charitable Steward was commended, sure thou shalt be at the last Quarter-day. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. ii. (1876) 174 [They] had..a happy quarter-day coming round for them. |