quail

quail

quail (third-person singular simple present quails, present participle quailing, simple past and past participle quailed)

1. (intransitive) To waste away; to fade, wither. [from 15th c.]
2. (transitive, now rare) To frighten, daunt (someone). [from 16th c.]
   • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 358:

     To tell the truth the prospect rather quailed him – wandering about in the gloomy corridors of a nunnery.

3. (intransitive) To lose heart or courage; to be daunted, fearful. [from 16th c.]
   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde:

     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.

   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p. 25:

     His heart quailed before the enormous pyramidal shape.

4. (intransitive) To slacken, give way (of courage, faith etc.). [from 16th c.]

quail (plural quails)

1. Any of various small game birds of the genera Coturnix, Anurophasis or Perdicula in the Old World family Phasianidae or of the New World family Odontophoridae.

	quaglia
	any of several small game birds

coturnice

Altri significati:

quail (at)

Any of various small game birds of the genera Coturnix, Anurophasis or Perdicula in the Old World family Phasianidae or of the New World family Odontophoridae.

To shrink or waver; to become fearful or doubtful.

Traduzione 'veloce'

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