# quid

Pronunciation: say "KWID" /kwɪd/

## Noun

1. A pound sterling; usually used only for whole numbers of pounds. *(colloquial, UK)*
   - Simple: A pound in British money, usually used when talking about whole pounds.
   - _He sold his old bike to a mate for fifty quid._
   - _It costs a quid to use the toilets at the station, would you believe._
2. Something offered in exchange for something else, used with quo in a play on the phrase quid pro quo.
   - Simple: The thing given in a deal to get something back, which is called the quo.
   - _Investigators could find the quid (a large donation) but not the quo it supposedly bought._
   - _Every trade deal has a quid and a quo, and the argument is usually over which side gives more._
3. A piece of material to be chewed, especially a lump of chewing tobacco.
   - Simple: A piece of something to chew, most often tobacco.
   - _The ballplayer shifted his quid to the other cheek and stepped up to the plate._
   - _She cut a quid from the plug and offered it to the driver._
5. The activity of chewing tobacco, as distinct from the wad being chewed. *(colloquial, US)*
   - Simple: The act of chewing on tobacco.
6. Outside the UK, especially in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, a unit of the local currency: formerly a pound, now sometimes a euro or a dollar. *(colloquial, Commonwealth, Ireland)*
   - Simple: In places like Ireland or Australia, one unit of the local money: once a pound, now sometimes a euro or dollar.
   - _Back in the early sixties, a quid went a long way in a Sydney pub._
   - _When the Irish pound was replaced, people still had a few old quid tucked away in drawers._
7. A sovereign or a guinea, either as a coin or as that amount of money.
   - Simple: An old British coin called a sovereign or guinea, or the same amount of money.

## Verb

4. To chew tobacco.
   - Simple: To chew on tobacco.

## Other meanings

- (noun) The essential nature of something; what a thing inherently is.
- (noun) A member of a faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that followed John Randolph of Roanoke between 1805 and 1811; the name comes from tertium quid.
- (verb) Of a horse, to let food drop from the mouth while chewing.

## Origin

**Meaning 2** — Latin quis ("who") has the neuter singular form quid ("what, something"), and English borrowed that form.
**Meanings 1, 6–7** — This sense probably grew out of quid pro quo ("this for that"), with the idea of paying cash in return for goods or services.
**Meanings 3–5** — Old English cwidu, cwudu, meaning "that which is chewed" or "cud," became Middle English quide, quede. Cud is a doublet.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/quid (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).