QUILL • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Quill

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/kwɪl/ Listen

noun

Quill n.

1.

One of the large feathers of a bird's wing, or one of the rectrices of the tail; also, the stock of such a feather.

2.

A pen for writing made by sharpening and splitting the point or nib of the stock of a feather; as, history is the proper subject of his quill.

3.

(Zool.)

(a)

A spine of the hedgehog or porcupine.

(b)

The pen of a squid. See Pen.

4.

(Mus.)

(a)

The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.

(b)

The tube of a musical instrument. "He touched the tender stops of various quills."

5.

Something having the form of a quill; as:

(a)

The fold or plain of a ruff.

(b)

(Weaving) A spindle, or spool, as of reed or wood, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.

(c)

(Mach.) A hollow spindle.

6.

(Pharm.) A roll of dried bark; as, a quill of cinnamon or of cinchona.

Quill bit, a bit for boring resembling the half of a reed split lengthways and having its end sharpened like a gouge.

Quill driver, one who works with a pen; a writer; a clerk. (Jocose)

Quill nib, a small quill pen made to be used with a holder.

verb

Quill v. t. (past & past part. quilled; pres. part. quilling)

1.

To plaint in small cylindrical ridges, called quillings; as, to quill a ruffle. "His cravat seemed quilled into a ruff."

2.

To wind on a quill, as thread or yarn.

See images of 'Quill'

Etymology of 'Quill'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Quill" Quotes from Famous Books

... I looked at each other in an ironical silence. Basil, who was sitting by his desk, swung the chair round idly on its screw and picked up a quill-pen. ...

— The Club of Queer Trades • G. K. Chesterton

... Christine's new name in the register; he looked up at her with short-sighted eyes, a quill pen held between ...

— The Second Honeymoon • Ruby M. Ayres

... "letter-writing habit," which has clung to her through life. The letters of that time were laborious affairs, often consuming days in the writing, commencing even to children, "Respected Daughter," or "Son," and rarely exceeding one or two pages. They were written with a quill pen on foolscap paper, and almost wholly devoted to the weather and the sickness in the family. The amount of the latter would be appalling to modern households. The women's letters were written in infinitesimal characters, it being considered unladylike ...

— The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2) • Ida Husted Harper

... had. He had grown as dry and hard and empty as a quill, as such silly, shallow-hearted ...

— Journeys Through Bookland V2 • Charles H. Sylvester

... Pathan who attains a commission, and deports himself like an officer, never thinks himself, or is thought by others, deficient in anything that constitutes the gentleman, because he happens not to be at the same time a clerk. He has from his childhood been taught to consider the quill and the sword as two distinct professions, both useful and honourable when honourably pursued; and having chosen the sword, he thinks he does quite enough in learning how to use and support it through all grades, and ought not to be expected to encroach on the profession ...

— Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official • William Sleeman

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