<B>quick grass,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a western North American couch grass, ranging from Nebraska to British Columbia and south to Texas and Arizona. </DL>
<A NAME="quickhatch">
<B>quickhatch, </B>noun. <B>=wolverine.</B></DL>
<A NAME="quickie">
<B>quickie, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Slang.) <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a motion picture, novel, or the like, produced cheaply and in haste. <BR> <I>Ex. But his book remains, somehow, for all its basic honesty, a sort of journalistic quickie in blackface (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a short drink of alcoholic liquor. <DD><B> 3. </B>anything done very hastily. <BR> <I>Ex. Election year brought the usual flutter of campaign quickies (Time).</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>fast; quick; requiring little preparation. <BR> <I>Ex. a quickie training course for Directors, mostly on non-controversial matters (Wall Street Journal).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>giving little warning. <BR> <I>Ex. The turbulence that expressed itself in the early sit-down strikes and in hundreds of quickie shutdowns has yielded to a more cooperative relationship (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quickish">
<B>quickish, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> rather quick. <BR> <I>Ex. a quickish left-hander (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quickkick">
<B>quick kick,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Football.) a punt kicked on one of the first downs and not from the formation usual for kicking, intended to surprise the opponents and catch them out of position. </DL>
<A NAME="quickkicker">
<B>quick-kicker, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a football player skilled in kicking surprise punts over the other team's safety man. </DL>
<A NAME="quicklime">
<B>quicklime, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a white, alkaline substance obtained by burning limestone and used especially for making mortar, glass, and insecticides; lime; calcium oxide. </DL>
<A NAME="quickly">
<B>quickly, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> rapidly; with haste; very soon. <BR> <I>Ex. Slum boys are tempted by dreams of "easy money" and quickly-won esteem (Scientific American). Leave the sickroom quickly and come into it quickly, not suddenly, nor with a rush (Florence Nightingale).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quickmarch">
<B>quick march,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a march in quick time. </DL>
<A NAME="quickmix">
<B>quick-mix, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> food product offered for sale with most of the ingredients already mixed, usually requiring only the addition of a final ingredient and cooking. <BR> <I>Ex. Sales of quick-mix drinking chocolate in particular were so successful that they outstripped our supplies (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quickness">
<B>quickness, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=speed.</B> <BR> <I>Ex. the quickness of motion.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>briskness; promptness. <BR> <I>Ex. the quickness of the imagination or wit.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>acuteness; keenness. <BR> <I>Ex. Would not quickness of sensation be an inconvenience to an animal that must lie still? (John Locke).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>sharpness; pungency. </DL>
<A NAME="quicksand">
<B>quicksand, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a very deep, soft, wet sand that will not hold up a person's weight. Quicksand may swallow up people and animals. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) <BR> <I>Ex. The roots of conflict, he believes, lie buried in the quicksands of human nature (Newsweek). It would have the great merit of eliciting information and perhaps revealing the location of any financial quicksands (Wall Street Journal). It is my duty ... to see that he is properly mated--not wrecked upon the quicksands of marriage (George Meredith).</I> (SYN) treachery. </DL>
<B>quickset, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Especially British.) <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a plant or cutting, especially of hawthorn, set to grow in a hedge. <BR> <I>Ex. I am afraid I shall see great neglects among my quicksets (Jonathan Swift).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a hedge of such plants. <DD><I>adj. </I> formed of such plants. </DL>
<A NAME="quicksighted">
<B>quick-sighted, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> quick to see or discern. <BR> <I>Ex. a wonderfully active and quick-sighted person ... able to see what is going on all round (W. H. Hudson).</I> noun <B>quick-sightedness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="quicksilver">
<B>quicksilver, </B>noun, verb, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B><B>=mercury </B>(def. 1). <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) something as shining, quick-moving, and elusive as mercury. <BR> <I>Ex. Emmett by contrast is a piece of quicksilver, brilliant but unpredictable (London Times).</I> <DD><I>v.t. </I> to coat, treat, or mix with mercury. <DD><I>adj. </I> bright and quick-moving; quicksilvery. <BR> <I>Ex. Dr. Pringle ... speaks swiftly, with quicksilver linking of thought and expression (London Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quicksilvery">
<B>quicksilvery, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> resembling quicksilver; bright and quick-moving. <BR> <I>Ex. The quicksilvery score, with its pastoral interludes and lavish descriptive effects, is a delight (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quickstep">
<B>quickstep, </B>noun, verb, <B>-stepped,</B> <B>-stepping.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a step used in marching in quick time. <BR> <I>Ex. The Grand Army starts off to war with a rousing quickstep, soon changes its tune to fit a war for which ... hardly any of the soldiers were prepared (Time).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>music in a brisk march rhythm. <DD><B> 3. </B>a lively dance step. <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to march or progress at a lively pace. <BR> <I>Ex. But for all the explanations of the [ticker] tapewatchers there was one that underlay them all: The growing belief ... that the whole economy ... was once again quickstepping to new peaks (Newsweek).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to dance the quickstep. </DL>
<A NAME="quickstudy">
<B>quick study,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a person who memorizes rapidly. <BR> <I>Ex. Until a fortnight ago, [he] had never had Ravel's score in his hands, but he is what is known in the theatre as a quick study (Time).</I> </DL>
<B>quick time,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a pace in marching of 120 thirty-inch steps per minute, the ordinary marching pace of the United States Army, Marine Corps, and other marching groups. In quick time, soldiers march four miles an hour. </DL>
<A NAME="quicktrick">
<B>quick trick,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (in bridge) a card, such as an ace, or a combination of cards, such as a king and queen in the same suit, that may be counted upon to win a trick the first or second time a suit is played, unless trumped. </DL>
<A NAME="quicktriggered">
<B>quick-triggered, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>that shoots fast. <BR> <I>Ex. He had made his way, by jeep and on foot, into the wild, roadless fastness of Cuba's Sierra Maestra ... dodging quick-triggered army patrols (Newsweek).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) quickly put in action or set in motion. <BR> <I>Ex. Igaya knows that only quick-triggered reflexes and a good memory stand between him and death (Newsweek). Actually the quick-triggered Seawolf got away before Mrs. Cole could strike her hard with the metal protected champagne bottle (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quickwitted">
<B>quick-witted, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having a ready wit; mentally alert; clever. (SYN) keen, sharp. </DL>
<B>quick-wittedness, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> readiness of wit; cleverness. </DL>
<A NAME="quid">
<B>quid</B> (1), noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a piece to be chewed. <DD><B> 2. </B>a bite of chewing tobacco. <BR> <I>Ex. A large roll of tobacco was presented ... and every individual took a comfortable quid (Tobias Smollett).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quid">
<B>quid</B> (2), noun, pl. <B>quid</B> or <B>quids.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (British Slang.) one pound sterling; a sovereign. <BR> <I>Ex. I'll give you five quid for the lot.</I> </DL>
<B>quiddity, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ties.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>that which makes a thing what it is; essence. <BR> <I>Ex. The quiddity ... of poetry as distinguished from prose (Thomas De Quincey).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>a distinction of no importance; quibble. <BR> <I>Ex. How now, how now, mad wag! What, in thy quips and thy quiddities? (Shakespeare). His stylized manner and his quips and quiddities will grow stale (Newsweek),</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quiddle">
<B>quiddle, </B>verb, <B>-dled,</B> <B>-dling,</B> noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Dialect.) <DD><I>v.i. </I> to trifle; fiddle; fuss. <BR> <I>Ex. I should like to know who's a going to stop a quiddle with young uns? (Harriet Beecher Stowe).</I> <DD><I>noun </I> a person given to fussing. <BR> <I>Ex. The Englishman is ... a quiddle about his toast and his chop (Emerson).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quidnunc">
<B>quidnunc, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an inquisitive person; gossip. <BR> <I>Ex. the crowd of village idlers, quidnuncs, tattlers and newsmongers (Arnold Bennett). At week's end the Russians themselves provided an unexpectedly fast answer for the quidnuncs (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quidproquo">
<B>quid pro quo,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Latin.) <DD><B> 1. </B>one thing in return for another; compensation. <BR> <I>Ex. A laughable quid pro quo ... occurred to him in a conversation (Thackeray). We must cease thinking of economic aid as a short-run political tool which calls for a military quid pro quo (W. Averell Harriman).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(literally) something for something. </DL>
<A NAME="quids">
<B>quids, </B>noun pl.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Especially British Slang.) money; cash. <BR> <I>Ex. "If only you boffins," (R.A.F. slang for a scientist) said Collins, "would give us a cheap way of locating an aircraft, then we'd be quids in" (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quiensabe?">
<B>quien sabe?,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Spanish.) who knows?. <BR> <I>Ex. All climbed out carrying suitcases. "What are you going to do, rob the Treasury?" joshed a guard. "Quien sabe?" replied babyfaced Jose Aleman (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="quiesce">
<B>quiesce, </B>intransitive verb, <B>-esced,</B> <B>-escing.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> to become quiet or calm. </DL>
