Shak.
Qui"et*some (?), a. Calm; still. [Obs.] Spenser.
Qui"e*tude, n. [L. quietudo: cf. F. quiÈtude.] Rest; repose; quiet;
tranquillity. Shelley.
Qui*e"tus (?), n. [LL. quietus quit, discharged, L., at rest, quiet,
dead. See Quiet, a., and cf. Quit, a.] Final discharge or acquittance,
as from debt or obligation; that which silences claims; (Fig.) rest;
death.
When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin.
Shak.
Quill (?), n. [Perhaps fr. F. quille ninepin (see Kayless); but cf.
also G. kiel a quill. MHG. kil, and Ir. cuille a quill.] 1. One of the
large feathers of a bird's wing, or one of the rectrices of the tail;
also, the stock of such a feather.
2. A pen for writing made by sharpening and splitting the point or nib
of the stock of a feather; as, history is the proper subject of his
quill. Sir H. Wotton.
3. (Zoˆl.) (a) A spine of the hedgehog or porcupine. (b) The pen of a
squid. See Pen.
4. (Mus.) (a) The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of
certain instruments. (b) The tube of a musical instrument.
He touched the tender stops of various quills.
Milton.
5. Something having the form of a quill; as: (a) The fold or plain of a
ruff. (b) (Weaving) A spindle, or spool, as of reed or wood, upon which
the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle. (c) (Mach.) A hollow
spindle.
Quill bit, a bit for boring resembling the half of a reed split
lengthways and having its end sharpened like a gouge. -- Quill driver,
one who works with a pen; a writer; a clerk. [Jocose] -- Quill nib, a
small quill pen made to be used with a holder. Simmonds.
Quill, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Quilled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Quilling.] 1.
To plaint in small cylindrical ridges, called quillings; as, to quill a
ruffle.
His cravat seemed quilled into a ruff.
Goldsmith.