quarter
Pluralquarters
Verbquarters, quartering, quartered
Pluralquarters
Formsquarters, quartering, quartered
- 1A fourth part of something; any one of the four equal portions that make up a whole.
She divided the inheritance so each child received a quarter.
Nearly a quarter of the building was destroyed in the fire.
UsageThe verb agrees with what follows of: a quarter of the pizza is gone, a quarter of the people are here.
Similarfourth
- 2A fourth part of the year, three months long, treated especially as a business term or season.
Profits rose sharply in the second quarter.
Analysts expect stronger earnings over the coming quarters.
UsageWith ordinals and a year: in the second quarter, the first quarter of 2024. The adjective is quarterly.
Note
Finance has made this the reporting clock. A company's results come in the first quarter of 2024, and data may be missing for the first two quarters of 2021. The older idea of a term or season lingers in compounds like quarter day, under the three-month adjective.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Companies use quarters as financial reporting periods. vestas.com
- Quarter has an older meaning of a three-month term or season. en.wiktionary.org
- Quarter day preserves the connection with a quarter of a year. en.wiktionary.org
- 3Any of the four equal segments of playing time in a game.
The home team dominated the third quarter.
Both quarters before halftime were scoreless.
UsageWith ordinals: in the third quarter. For games played in two halves or three periods, use those words instead.
Similarperiod
- 4A 25-cent coin minted in the United States or Canada; one fourth of a dollar.
He fed a quarter into the vending machine for a soda.
The cashier handed back three quarters in change.
UsageCommon patterns include pay with quarters and put a quarter in the meter.
Note
This is North American money. In the United States and Canada, a quarter in the pocket is a coin, and the same word names the sum of 25 cents. The synonym two bits counts the same amount.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The United States has a quarter coin worth 25 cents. en.wikipedia.org
- Canada has a quarter coin worth 25 cents. en.wikipedia.org
- Two bits means 25 cents, the same amount as a quarter. en.wiktionary.org
- 5A division or section of a town or city, especially one with a distinct character of its own or associated with a particular group.
The historic quarter draws thousands of tourists each summer.
Immigrant families settled in the city's eastern quarters.
Similardistrict, neighborhood, area, sector, zone
- 6One of the matches in a knockout competition whose winners advance to the semifinals.
Her quarter against the top seed lasted nearly four hours.
Both quarters were played on the same afternoon.
UsageShort for quarterfinal, most often in the quarters: she reached the quarters.
Similarquarterfinal
- 7A person's residence or dwelling; in the plural, the rooms or lodgings provided especially to soldiers or domestic staff.
Visiting diplomats were shown to their quarters in the east wing.
The sergeant and his family moved into a married quarter on the base.
UsageUsually plural in this meaning: living quarters, officers' quarters, shown to their quarters.
Similarlodgings, accommodation, residence, dwelling, rooms
Note
It pairs with the verb of billeting, since soldiers quartered in a town are given quarters there. It also pairs with the quartermaster, whose title names the job of arranging such lodging.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Soldiers quartered in a town are provided with lodging there. en.wikipedia.org
- The military title quartermaster refers to responsibility for arranging quarters or lodging. en.wikipedia.org
- 8A fifteen-minute span, one fourth of an hour, used especially in telling the time to or past the hour.
The meeting started at a quarter to nine.
She practiced for three quarters of an hour before dinner.
UsageSay a quarter past or a quarter to nine; the a can be left out. Also three quarters of an hour.
Note
Bells are said to chime the hours and the quarters, with the plural standing for each fifteen-minute mark. The AA Book of British Villages (1980) uses it of a church clock built in 1525.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The church clock described was built in 1525. hendredmuseum.org.uk
- 9Relating to a three-month period, or to one of the four divisions of a year.
Farm rents in England were once paid on quarter days such as Lady Day.
Rent and wages were once settled on the four quarter days of the year.
UsageKept in fixed terms like quarter day; for newer uses English says quarterly: quarterly reports.
Similarquarterly
Note
This adjective survives mostly in fixed compounds. A quarter day is one that ends a quarter of the year, and a quarter session is one held once each quarter.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A quarter day marks the end of a quarter of the year. en.wiktionary.org
- 10Consisting of or relating to a fourth part of something; amounting to one quarter.
The recipe calls for a quarter teaspoon of salt.
They jogged the final quarter mile to the finish line.
UsageBefore a noun, of drops out: a quarter mile, a quarter hour, beside a quarter of a mile.
- 11A sector of a population or group, typically one defined by shared values or interests.
The reforms met fierce resistance from conservative quarters.
Her appointment was praised in every quarter of the profession.
UsageUsually after from or in: criticism from some quarters, help from an unexpected quarter.
Similarcircle, section, sector, camp, faction
Note
The sense lives in set phrases about where opinion comes from: criticism from some quarters, praise from all quarters, help from an unexpected quarter. In 1897 one political review described an objection as coming "from a Liberal quarter in politics." The vague plural lets a writer point at a source of opinion without naming anyone.
- 12A particular region, place, or direction, especially one of the four main points of the compass or the area of earth or sky lying toward it.
The hikers heard thunder rumbling from a quarter they couldn't quite place.
Visitors came from every quarter of the globe to watch the eclipse.
- 13To travel back and forth across an area, passing from one point to the next.
Rescue volunteers quarter the woods in pairs, crossing and recrossing every slope.
The spaniel quartered the field ahead of the hunters, nose close to the ground.
Similarcomb, scour, crisscross, search
Less common meanings
- 14To divide something into quarters; to split it by four.
She quartered the orange and shared it around.
Cooks often quarter the chicken before roasting.
- 15A weight equal to one fourth of a pound, roughly 113 grams.
The shop sold him a quarter of loose tea.
He weighed out a quarter of nuts for the recipe.
- 16Mercy granted to a defeated opponent; the sparing of their life rather than killing them.
The commander refused to grant quarter to the rebels.
Knowing no quarter would be offered, the garrison fought to the last.
UsageUsually with give, grant or ask, and without a: no quarter was given.
Similarmercy, clemency, leniency, pity
Note
The sense lives on mostly in fixed phrases about war and hard contests: to give no quarter, to ask for none, to show a rival no quarter. Tolkien's The Return of the King (1955) says the Easterlings were "strong and war-hardened" and "asked for no quarter."
- 17To provide lodging for someone, especially soldiers, or to be lodged or stay somewhere temporarily.
The army quartered its officers in the old manor house.
Local families were ordered to quarter passing regiments.
UsageOften in the passive with a place: troops were quartered in a manor house.
Similarbillet, lodge, house, accommodate
- 18To cut the body of a condemned person into four parts as part of an execution, usually after hanging.
The court condemned the conspirator and ordered the executioner to quarter him at dawn.
Traitors were once hanged and then quartered in front of a crowd.
UsageBest known from the phrase hanged, drawn and quartered.
Note
This is a word for history books and trial records. It takes the dividing into four of the everyday verb and applies it literally to a human body, as a sentence carried out by a court.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Quartering involved literally dividing a human body into four parts. en.wikipedia.org
- Quartering was carried out as a punishment imposed by a court. en.wikipedia.org
- 19One of the four divisions of a quartered shield, or the arms displayed in one; also, a square charge occupying the shield's upper dexter corner.
In the first quarter of the family's coat of arms, three red roses sit on a white field.
A red quarter bearing three stars marked the family's senior line.
Note
Heraldry uses the word for a shield's divisions and for a particular charge. As a charge, it normally occupies the upper dexter corner, cut off by a line running down from the top and a line running in from the side. What sets it apart from the canton is size: the quarter is the larger of the two. Arranging whole coats of arms in a shield's divisions is the heraldic verb, a separate matter.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Quarter can name a division of a quartered shield as well as the charge normally occupying the upper dexter corner. gutenberg.org
- The quarter, considered as a charge, occupies the upper dexter corner and is bounded by vertical and horizontal lines. en.wikisource.org
- The quarter is larger than the canton. en.wikisource.org
- Quartering means arranging different coats of arms in the divisions of one shield. gutenberg.org
- 20To display different coats of arms together in the divided sections of one shield.
The duke decided to quarter his wife's arms with his own.
Heralds quartered the two houses' emblems after the marriage.
Note
Here the verb takes the arms themselves as its object: one coat is quartered with another, or a device is made by quartering the arms of several places. Michael Robbins, writing on London Underground heraldry in the Railway Magazine (1950), describes the Central London Railway's device as quartering the arms of the City of London and two parishes. The shield's divisions are the heraldic quarter itself.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Coats of arms can be quartered together to form a composite shield. gutenberg.org
- Michael Robbins wrote about London Underground heraldry in Railway Magazine in 1950 and described the Central London Railway device as quartering the City of London's arms and those of two parishes. en.wiktionary.org
- The divisions of a quartered shield are called quarters. gutenberg.org
- 21The rear portion of a ship's side, running roughly from the aftmost mast to the stern.
The enemy frigate appeared off the starboard quarter at dawn.
Green water came aboard over the port quarter during the gale.
Note
Sailors use this word for both a place and a direction. One can sit upon the quarter, and another ship can come up on the weather quarter, behind and to the windward side. Port quarter and starboard quarter work the same way. In Charles Reade's Hard Cash (1863) the captain warns his men that 'the schooner coming up on our weather quarter is a Portuguese pirate.'
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Charles Reade wrote Hard Cash. gutenberg.org
- Hard Cash was first published in 1863. gutenberg.org
- The wording is an accurate excerpt from Captain Dodd's speech, but omits the opening address 'My men' and the remainder of his warning. gutenberg.org
- 22In military use, the quartermaster or quartermaster sergeant, responsible for supplies, equipment, and lodging.
Tietjens said: ‘Send the Canadian sergeant-major to me at the double….’ to the quarter.
1925, Ford Madox Ford, “Parade's End”Note
This is army shorthand. In Ford Madox Ford's No More Parades (1925), Tietjens sends an order 'to the quarter.' With the article, 'the quarter' names a person or office. That keeps it distinct from soldiers' quarters, which are rooms.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Ford Madox Ford wrote No More Parades. fadedpage.com
- No More Parades was first published in 1925. fadedpage.com
- Tietjens gives an order addressed 'to the quarter'. gutenberg.net.au
- 23In American football, the player who directs the offense and typically throws the passes; a quarterback.
Note
A clipping of quarterback that has nearly fallen out of use, in rugby as well as American football. Here, quarter means a player rather than a period of play.
- 24A unit of capacity used mainly for grain or coal, its size varying greatly by period and region.
One of these is 1 Hen. V, cap. 10, defining the quarter of corn to be eight struck bushels, and putting fines on purveyors who take more.
1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England - 25A unit of length equal to one fourth of a yard, originally one fourth of an ell.
- 26A unit of weight equal to one fourth of a hundredweight, roughly 28 pounds.
- 27One of the four divisions or watches into which the night was formerly split.
- 28Either side of a horse's hoof, the region lying between the toe and the heel.
- 29A land measure equal to one fourth of an acre, the same as a rood.
- 30A subject or field of activity.
- 31The way people get along with and treat one another.
In quarter, and in terms like bride and groom.
c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice” - 32To saw a log into quarters lengthwise and then cut boards across the growth rings, which gives a straight, stable grain.
- 33To guide a horse-drawn coach along a rutted road so that its wheels ride on the ridges, keeping clear of the grooves or straddling one.
Every creature that met us would rely upon us for quartering
1821, [Thomas De Quincey], Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
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Practice
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Origin
The word passed from Latin quartarius (from quartus) through Anglo-Norman quarter into Middle English quarter. It is related to Spanish cuarto and is a doublet of quartier.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Quarter passed from Latin quartarius, derived from quartus, through Anglo-Norman quarter into Middle English quarter. en.wiktionary.org
- Quarter is etymologically related to Spanish cuarto. en.wiktionary.org
- Quarter is a doublet of quartier. en.wiktionary.org