quire (1), quairs, queare, cwaer

[Old Fr. quaier, quayer, cayer (Fr. cahier ), prob. from Lat. quaternum =a collection of four leaves, a small quire, from quaterni =four each, from quatuor = four; Italian quaderno a quire of paper; Spanish cuaderno.] 1. A collection of twenty-four sheets of paper. Wrapping, envelope, flat-cap, printing, and many other papers are not folded. Newspaper has twenty-five sheets to the quire. 2. A collection of one of each of the sheets of a book laid in consecutive order ready for folding. The sheets are gathered into a quire or book, which is folded along the middle. *3. A little book; a pamphlet. IMG:content-0124.png:[blocks in formation] a quibble. 1. An artful turn, evasion, or subterfuge; a shift. 2. A fit, a turn; a sharp stroke or attack. "I've felt so many quirks of joy and grief." Shakesp.: All's Well that Ends Well, iii. 2. 3. A sharp taunt or return; a quip, a quibble. "Ply her with love letters and billets, And bait them well, for quirks and quillets." Butler: Hudibras , iii. 3. 4. A flight of fancy; a conceit. "One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens." Shakesp.: Othello, ii. 1. 5. A light fragmentary piece of music; an irregu lar air. ( Pope.) 6. The clock of a stocking. 7. A pane of gla cut at the sides and top in the form of a rhomb. II. Architecture and Carpentry : 1. A sudden turn; applied to a form of molding in which an acute rece separates the molding proper from the fillet or soffit. It is much used between moldings in Gothic architecture; in Grecian, and sometimes in Roman, architecture ovolos and ogees are usually quirked at the top. 2. A projecting fillet on the sole or side of a grooving-plane, which acts as a fence or a gauge for depth or distance. 3. A piece taken out of any regular ground-plot or floor, so as to make a court, yard, .; thus, if the ground-plan were square or oblong, and a piece were taken out of the corner, such piece is called a quirk.