† perˈquer, -ˈqueir, -ˈquire, adv. (a.) Sc. Obs.
Also 4 -quere, 6 -quier.
[a. F. par cœur (in OF. queur (11th c.), cuer (12–15th c.), cueur (14–15th c.), by heart, by memory, perfectly, exactly.]
By heart, by memory; hence, perfectly, accurately, exactly. to have perqueir: to ‘have by heart’, to know or remember perfectly.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 238 Than all perquer he suld it wit. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxx. (Theodera) 414, & leryt sa, for he was wyse, Al þat til a monk suld fere, In to schort tyme wele perquere. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xc. 32 Gif thow can nocht schaw furth thi synnes perqueir. 1577 in Balfour Oppress. Orkn. & Shetl. (1859) 19 He [the Lawrightman]..pronuncit the decreitis perqueyre in default of scrybis. a 1586 Sir R. Maitland Poems (1830) 16 Nor of ane Princes the dewtie and the det, Quhilk I beleif thy heichnes hes per queir. a 1610 J. Sempill in Sempill Ballatis (1872) 247 The fearefull babe quho knawes his task perqueir. 1638 Baillie Lett. (1775) I. 17 A number of othir passages I had perquire. 1722 Ramsay Three Bonnets i. 102 Could newest aiths genteelly swear, And had a course o' flaws perquire. |
b. loosely. Certainly, without doubt, forsooth, verily; rightly, uprightly.
| a 1550 in Dunbar's Poems (1893) 312 For he that pacience can nocht leir, He sall displesance haif, perqueir. 1562 A. Scott Poems i. 46 Lat perversit prelettis leif perqueir. |
B. adj. Thoroughly versed, ‘perfect’; ready.
| 1572 Satir. Poems Reform. xxx. 72 Rype of ingyne, with iudgement perqueir. c 1600 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 1467 Thair neirest perquierest Is always to them baith. 1742 R. Forbes Ajax's Sp. in Poems Buchan Dial. (1785) 2 At threeps I am na' sae perquire, Nor auld-farren as he. |