QUAIL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does quail mean? 

• QUAIL (noun)
  The noun QUAIL has 2 senses:

1. flesh of quail; suitable for roasting or broiling if young; otherwise must be braised

2. small gallinaceous game birds

  Familiarity information: QUAIL used as a noun is rare.

• QUAIL (verb)
  The verb QUAIL has 1 sense:

1. draw back, as with fear or pain

  Familiarity information: QUAIL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• QUAIL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Flesh of quail; suitable for roasting or broiling if young; otherwise must be braised

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("quail" is a kind of...):

wildfowl (flesh of any of a number of wild game birds suitable for food)

Domain category:

game bird (any bird (as grouse or pheasant) that is hunted for sport)

Holonyms ("quail" is a part of...):

quail (small gallinaceous game birds)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Small gallinaceous game birds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("quail" is a kind of...):

phasianid (a kind of game bird in the family Phasianidae)

Meronyms (parts of "quail"):

quail (flesh of quail; suitable for roasting or broiling if young; otherwise must be braised)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "quail"):

bobwhite; bobwhite quail; partridge (a popular North American game bird; named for its call)

Old World quail (small game bird with a rounded body and small tail)

California quail; Lofortyx californicus (plump chunky bird of coastal California and Oregon)

Holonyms ("quail" is a member of...):

bevy (a flock of birds (especially when gathered close together on the ground))

• QUAIL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they quail    ... he / she / it quails   
Past simple: quailed   
Past participle: quailed   
-ing form: quailing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Draw back, as with fear or pain

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

cringe; flinch; funk; quail; recoil; shrink; squinch; wince

Context example:

she flinched when they showed the slaughtering of the calf

Hypernyms (to "quail" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "quail"):

retract; shrink back (pull away from a source of disgust or fear)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

She only shook her own head at him, but in a way that made him quail.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His opponent's duller and more material mind quailed before the fire and intensity of a higher spiritual nature.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was a coward, afraid to strike me because I had not quailed sufficiently in advance; so he chose a new way to intimidate me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Come, take these two wicked girls, they are tender morsels for you, fat as young quails; for mercy’s sake eat them!

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

But the other animals—the squirrels, and quail, and cottontails, were creatures of the Wild who had never yielded allegiance to man.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

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 recognised it for one that he had himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I quailed momentarily—then I rallied.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Holloa!” said my aunt to Peggotty, who quailed before her awful presence.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Out in the back-pasture, a quail could flutter up under his nose unharmed.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Thenceforward, he sat all day over the fire in the private room, gnawing his nails; there he dined, sitting alone with his fears, the waiter visibly quailing before his eye; and thence, when the night was fully come, he set forth in the corner of a closed cab, and was driven to and fro about the streets of the city.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)