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A yellow, pellucid variety of quartz.

Narrow; confined; as, a close alley; close quarters. "A close prison." Dickens.

l to shelter the men in a close engagement with an enemy's boarders; -- called also close quarters. [Obs.]

ich cloth is measured and sold. For this object the standard yard is usually divided into quarters and nails. -- Cloth paper, a coarse kind of paper used in pressing and finishing woolen cloth. -- Cloth shearer, one who shears cloth and frees it from superfluous nap.

A cabin on the after part of the quarterdeck, usually occupied by the captain. [Written also couch.] [Obs.] The commanders came on board and the council sat in the coach. Pepys.

The practice of quartering one's self as landlord on a tenant; a quartering of one's self on anybody. [Ireland] Spenser.

To acquire rapidly, as money; to make. Tenants cannot coin rent just at quarter day. Locke.

rote to the President of Congress . . . urging the appointment of a commissary general, a quartermaster general, a commissary of musters, and a commissary of artillery. W. Irving Commissary general, an officer in charge of some special department of army service; as: (a) The officer in charge of the commissariat and tr…

-- Companion ladder (Naut.), the ladder by which officers ascend to, or descend from, the quarter-deck. Totten. -- Companion way (Naut.), a staircase leading to the cabin. -- Knights companions, in certain honorary orders, the members of the lowest grades as distinguished from knights commanders, knights grand cross,…

tion of fruit in sirup in such a manner as to preserve its form, either whole, halved, or quartered; as, a compote of pears. Littr

erted piece (Mus.), a composition in parts for several voices or instrument, as a trio, a quartet, etc.

A liquid measure containing about three quarts.

s called the Tory, and which might with more propierty be called the Conservative, party. Quart. Rev. (1830). Conservative system (Mech.), a material sustem of such a nature that after the system has undergone any series of changes, and been brought back in any manner to its original state, the whole work done by exter…

A dry measure of four bushels, or half a quarter. [Written also comb.]

An edge or extremity; the part farthest from the center; hence, any quarter or part. From the four corners of the earth they come. Shak.

Sometimes he contrived, in deflance of the law, to live by coshering, that is to say, by quartering himself on the old tentants of his family, who, wretched as was their own condition, could not refuse a portion of their pittance to one whom they still regarded as their rightful lord. Macaulay.

A diminutive of the bendlet, containing one half its area or one quarter the area of the bend. When a single cottise is used alone it is often called a cost. See also Couple-close.

jails, etc. [Eng.] -- County seat, a county town. [U.S.] -- County sessions, the general quarter sessions of the peace for each county, held four times a year. [Eng.] -- County town, the town of a county, where the county business is transacted; a shire town.

That part of the Ionic capital between the abacus and quarter round, which forms the volute. Gwilt.

The increasing moon; the moon in her first quarter, or when defined by a concave and a convex edge; also, applied improperly to the old or decreasing moon in a like state.