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The wood of several tropical American trees of the order Simarubeæ, as Quassia amara, Picræna excelsa, and Simaruba amara. It is intensely bitter, and is used in medicine and sometimes as a substitute for hops in making beer.

The bitter principle of quassia, extracted as a white crystalline substance; -- formerly called quassite. [Written also quassiin, and quassine.]

A pustule. [Obs.]

The coaita.

Squat; flat. [Obs.] Shak.

A cousin within the first four degrees of kindred.

Later than, or subsequent to, the Tertiary; Post-tertiary; as, the Quaternary age, or Age of man.

Composed of, or arranged in, sets of four; quaternary; as, quaternate leaves.

a group of four words, phrases, circumstances, facts, or the like. Delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers. Acts xii. 4. Ye elements, the eldest birth Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run. Milton. The triads and quaternions with which he loaded his sentences. Sir W. Scott.

The number four. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

See 2d Quarteron.

A poem of fourteen lines; a sonnet. R. H. Stoddard.

he four aces, kings, queens, knaves, or tens, in the game of piquet; -- so called because quatorze counts as fourteen points.

A stanza of four lines rhyming alternately. Dryden.

A card, die. or domino, having four spots, or pips

Same as Quarterfoil.

he fifteenth century, when applied to Italian art or literature; as, the sculpture of the quattrocento; quattrocento style. --Quat`tro*cen"tist (#), n.

A quartet; -- applied chiefly to instrumental compositions.

See Quaver. [Obs.]

See Quagmire. [Obs.]