▪ I. quoin, n.
(kɔɪn)
Forms: 6 quoyne, 6–8 quoyn, 7 quoine, 7– quoin; 7 quain; 7–8 quine.
[var. spelling of coin, formerly used in all senses of that word, but now restricted to the following uses, in which coin, coign are also occasionally employed.]
1. Build. a. An external angle of a wall or building; also, one of the stones or bricks serving to form the angle; a corner-stone: = coin n. 1.
rustic quoin, one projecting from the general surface of the wall, usually with bevelled edges.
| 1532 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 114 The quoyne of the wall of a tenement. c 1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) II. 66 The walls, vautes, quines of doors and windows they razed and tear a down. 1663 Gerbier Counsel 71 Flowers for the Cross work in the gallace in these quains. 1670 L. Stucley Gospel-Glass xxxiv. 365 So many quoines to lock together all parts of the building into one. 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 261 At an upright Quine..lay a three quarter Bat at the Quine in the stretching course. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Wall, Certain courses, ledges, or Quoins of more strength than the rest, must be interlaid like bones to strengthen the whole fabrick. 1820 W. Irving Sketch Bk. II. 197 It is a large building of brick, with stone quoins. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. i. ii. (ed. 2) 29 The walls are of island Sand-stone, with quoins of Caen stone. |
b. An internal angle or corner, as of a room. hollow quoin, a recess in the walls at each end of a canal lock, to receive the heel-post of the gate.
| 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 627 If a room consists of more than four quoins, the additional corners must be allowed at per foot run. 1838 Simms Pub. Wks. Gt. Brit. ii. 6 The joint between the heel-post and hollow quoin is made watertight by the gate being..worked backwards and forwards. |
2. A wedge, or wedge-shaped block, used for various special purposes. a. Printing. A short wedge used to lock up a form.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 215/17 A Printers quoyn, cuneus, cuneolus. 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing viii, Quoyns are..of different Lengths, and different Breadths. Ibid. x. ¶9 The extuberancies of Nail-heads would hinder the free sliding of the Quoins. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Printing, The compositor..unlocking the form..by knocking out or loosening the quoins. 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. xv. 534 When the form gets out of register..by the starting of the quoins which secure the chase. 1880 Printing Times 15 Feb. 30/1 The form having been properly planed..slightly slacken the quoins. |
b. Gunnery. (a) A wedge-shaped piece of wood, with a handle at the thick end, used to raise or lower a gun. (b) = quoiner. ? Obs. (c) A small wedge used in fixing the breech of a gun.
| 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xiv. 65 Quoines..are great wedges of wood with a little handle at the end to put them forward or backward for leuelling the Peece. 1707 Gloss. Angl. Nova, Quoin, a wedge fastned on the Deck, close to the Breech of the Carriages of the great Guns, to keep them firm up to the Ship's sides. 1711 Milit. & Sea Dict. (ed. 4) s.v., The Quoyns the Gunners use under the Guns, to mount them higher or lower. 1805 in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1845) VII. 171 note, Our people took the quoins out, and elevated their guns. 1881 Greener Gun 476 For the larger cannon Sir W. G. Armstrong uses a quoin tightened by a screwed breech-plug. |
c. Naut. A wedge used to prevent casks from rolling. cantic quoin, standing quoin (see quot. 1711, and cf. cantic a., canting ppl. a.1).
| 1711 Milit. & Sea Dict. (ed. 4) s.v., Cantick Quoyns, being short, with three Edges, to put betwixt the Cask at the Bildge Hoops, to keep the Cask steady from rowling, and labouring one against another... The standing Quoyns,..a fit Length to be driven across betwixt the Buts..to keep the Chine of the But steady from jogging. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1776) Y y iij, Quoins or coins used in the stowage of a ship's hold. 1867 in Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. |
d. Build. The key-stone, or any one of the wedge-shaped stones (voussoirs) of an arch. rare.
| 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 306 In the middle, at the Key-Stone or Quoin. 1873 Tristram Moab ii. 20 Over the doorway..was let in an old quoin on which was cut an Arabic inscription. |
3. An angle, or angular object. rare.
| 1838 Simms Pub. Wks. Gt. Brit. 36 The quantity thus cut off from the acute quoin is gradually diminished to the opposite or obtuse quoin. 1868 Kinglake Crimea (1877) IV. ix. 230 It is only by an isthmus..of high land that the triangular quoin remains joined to the bulk of the Chersonese. 1878 Gurney Crystallogr. 30 Similar quoins or solid angles are such as are contained by the same number of plane angles. |
4. Comb., as quoin-drawer, -post, -stone (see quots.); quoin-wedge = sense 2.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 111/2 Quine stones..are Stones laid in a Brick wall at the corners of a House—a yard long and three Brick in thickness. 1875 J. Southward Dict. Typogr. 117 Quoin-drawer, a drawer in the frame of the imposing-stone in which the quoins are kept. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1849/2 Quoin post, the heel-post of a lock-gate. 1923 D. H. Lawrence tr. Verga's Mastro-don Gesualdo i. iv. 71 We want more man-power—a crane!—or tie a pulley-wheel up there to the beam of the roof—then a quoin-wedge underneath. |
▪ II. quoin, v.
(kɔɪn)
[See prec. and coin v.2]
1. trans. To secure or raise with a quoin or wedge. Also with up.
| 1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing xxiv. ¶7 He..then Quoins up the two ends of the Chase. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1776), Caler also signifies to quoin or wedge up any thing. 1854 J. Abbott Wallace vii. 138 What Mr. Grey meant by quoining up, was filling in the spaces under the large stones..and thus wedging them up to their proper level. 1875 J. Southward Dict. Typogr. 117 Quoining a Forme, the fitting of the quoins in a forme so that when it is locked up they shall..wedge up and secure the types. |
2. To provide with quoins or corners.
| 1834 Gentl. Mag. CIV. i. 96 A well, curiously quoined with stone. |