quail
/ˈkweɪ.əl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.13 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Death dvvels vvithin vs, and if gentle Peace / Diſcend not ſoone, our ſorrovves to ſurceaſe, / Latium (alreadie quaild) vvill be deſtroyd."
- "But when he meant to quaile and shake the Orbe, / He was as ratling Thunder."
- "To tell the truth the prospect rather quailed him – wandering about in the gloomy corridors of a nunnery."
- "Though George had stopped in his sentence, yet, his blood being up, he was not to be cowed by all the generations of Osborne; rallying instantly, he replied to the bullying look of his father, with another so indicative of resolution and defiance, that the elder man quailed in his turn, and looked away."
- "Mr. Utterson had already quailed at the name of Hyde; but when the stick was laid before him, he could doubt no longer: broken and battered as it was, he recognized it for one that he had himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll."
- "Stouter hearts than a woman's have quailed in this terrible winter. Yours is tender and trusting, and needs a stronger one to lean on; so I have come to you now, with an offer of marriage."
Etymology
From Middle English quaylen, from Middle Dutch queilen, quēlen, from Old Dutch *quelan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwelan, from Proto-Germanic *kwelaną (“to suffer”). Doublet of queal.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Asian blue quail
banded quail
black-breasted quail
blue-breasted quail
blue quail
bobwhite quail
brown quail
bustard quail