quail

/kweɪl/

verb5

•
To lose heart or courage; to be daunted or fearful.
- Stouter hearts than a woman's have quailed in this terrible winter. Yours is tender and trusting, and needs a stronger one to lean on; so I have come to you now, with an offer of marriage. — 1904
•
Of courage, faith, etc.: to slacken, to give way.
- Therewith his sturdie corage soone was quayd, / And all his sences were with suddein dread dismayd. — 1590
To waste away; to fade, to wither.
•
(no longer used) To daunt or frighten (someone).
- Death dvvels vvithin vs, and if gentle Peace / Discend not soone, our sorrovves to surcease, / Latium (alreadie quaild) vvill be destroyd. — 1594
•
(no longer used) To curdle or coagulate, as milk does.
- [Laser is given] to such as haue supped off and drunk quailed milke, that is cluttered within their stomack. — 1601

•
Any of various small game birds of the genera Coturnix, Anurophasis or Perdicula in the Old World family Phasianidae or of the New World family Odontophoridae.
- Quail require little water, so there is no point to putting in a guzzler if there is any permanent water within travel range. — 1954
The meat from this bird eaten as food.
•
(slang, no longer used) A prostitute.
- Her's Agamemnon, an honest fellow inough and one that loues quailes, but hee has not so much braine as eare-wax, […] — 1602

forms

quailed · quayd · quailing · quaileth · quails · quailest

Phrases with quail