quarters

1. 1
   nounplural

   Housing or living space, including barracks, set aside for people such as soldiers or staff.

   The crew were confined to cramped quarters below deck.

   Officers were assigned more spacious quarters near the command post.

   Similaraccommodation, lodgings, housing, barracks, rooms

   Note

   A word that began with soldiers and spread aboard ship and beyond. Robert Barr's traveler in Lord Stranleigh Abroad (1913) finds his steerage quarters very comfortable. It stays plural even for a single cabin or room (my quarters, never my quarter), and it pairs naturally with possessives and size words such as officers' quarters or cramped quarters. Its verb partner is the verb that lodges troops.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of quarter.

   The pie was sliced into even quarters before serving.

   Two quarters of the fiscal year had already passed.

   Note

   A regular -s plural that carries every countable meaning of the singular: fourths of a pie, quarters of a pound, the quarters of the year that accounts are reckoned by, and historically the watches of the night or a dry measure for grain and coal. The same spelling also serves as the verb form and as the plural-only word for lodging, so only context tells them apart.

3. 3
   noun

   The place or shelter where a person or animal lives.

   The diplomats took up quarters in the embassy's east wing.

   The bears returned to their winter quarters in the cave.

   Similarresidence, lodgings, home, shelter, abode

   Note

   Here the assigned lodging of the barracks sense widens to any dwelling at all, including an animal's. Jennifer S. Holland uses it in a 2017 National Geographic piece on Indonesia's macaques. It keeps its plural shape even when the home is a single den or nest, and it often takes a seasonal qualifier, as in winter quarters.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of quarter.

   The butcher quarters the carcass with a heavy cleaver.

   Each fall the regiment quarters its soldiers in the town.

   Note

   The -s form of a verb with an unusually wide reach. A butcher quarters a carcass, a sawyer quarters a log, a herald quarters arms on a shield, and an army quarters its troops. Most uses take an object, but in the lodging sense it can stand alone: a traveler quarters in town for the winter. It is spelled exactly like the plural noun, so only its place in the sentence tells them apart.

5. 5
   noun

   The quarterfinal round of a tournament, the stage with eight competitors still in contention.

   The defending champion crashed out in the quarters.

   Two seeded players met early, in the quarters rather than the final.

   Similarquarterfinals

6. 6
   noununcountable

   A drinking game popular at North American universities, in which players take turns bouncing a coin off a table into a glass.

   After exams, the students gathered for a noisy round of quarters.

   She challenged her roommate to a game of quarters.

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