(in general sense) Each offour equal parts into which something can be divided; a fourth part.[from 14th c.]
I ate aquarter of the pizza.
2023 April 5, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Pay deal a positive result”, inRAIL, number980, page 3:
For companies such as Trans Pennine Express, it will be even harder. It has the unwelcome claim to being Britain's worst train operator, with recent statistics from the Office of Rail and Road showing it cancelled nearly aquarter of its services in February, with lack of available train crew a real problem.
(now chiefly historical) A measure of capacity used chiefly forgrain orcoal, varying greatly in quantity by time and location.[from 13th c.]
1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers,A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page204:
One of these is 1 Hen. V, cap. 10, defining thequarter of corn to be eight struck bushels, and putting fines on purveyors who take more.
A fourth part of apound; approximately 113grams.[from 14th c.]
(historical) A measure oflength; originally a fourth part of anell, now chiefly a fourth part of ayard.[from 14th c.]
(now historical) A fourth part of thenight; one of thewatches or divisions of the night.[from 14th c.]
And aboute the fourthquartre of the nyght, he cam unto them, walkinge apon the see [...].
(now chiefly financial) A fourth part of theyear; 3months; a term or season.[from 14th c.]
2021 September 27, Priya Krishnakumar, “Murders rose sharply in 2020 but data is lacking across much of the country”, inCNN[1]:
The FBI began publishing national quarterly crime reports last year, but has not done so for the first twoquarters of 2021, stating that they require at least 60% of agencies to submit NIBRS data in order to publish quarterly data.
(time) A fourth part of anhour; a period of fifteenminutes, especially with reference to the quarter before or after the hour.[from 15th c.]
1980,AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page163:
An interesting feature of the church is the invisible clock, which you can hear thumping away as you enter. Constructed in 1525, it is one of the oldest timepieces in England. It chimes the hours and thequarters, and every three hours it plays a hymn. But it has no faces.
1667,John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, inParadise Lost.[…], London:[…] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker[…];[a]nd by Robert Boulter[…];[a]nd Matthias Walker,[…],→OCLC; republished asParadise Lost in Ten Books:[…], London: Basil Montagu Pickering[…],1873,→OCLC:
I am to haste, / And all who under me thir Banners wave, / Homeward with flying march where we possess / TheQuarters of the North[…].
Each of four parts into which theearth orsky is divided, corresponding to the four cardinal points of thecompass.[from 14th c.]
Adivision orsection of atown orcity, especially having a particular character of its own, or associated with a particular group etc.[from 16th c.]
One'sresidence or dwelling-place;(in plural)rooms,lodgings, especially as allocated to soldiers or domestic staff.[from 16th c.]
1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 10, inThe Wrecker:
“I'll tell you something, too,” retorted the captain, duskily flushing. “I wouldn't sail this ship for the man you are, if you went upon your knees. I've dealt with gentlemen up to now.” “I can tell you the names of a number of gentlemen you'll never deal with any more, and that's the whole of Longhurst's gang,” said Jim. “I'llput your pipe out in thatquarter, my friend. Here, rout out your traps as quick as look at it, and take your vermin along with you. I'll have a captain in, this very night, that's a sailor, and some sailors to work for him.”
[A]t last she kicked right over the carriage pole and fell down, after giving me a severe blow on my nearquarter.
(often plural) A section (of a population), especially one having a particular set of values or interests.
opposition to the policy came from an unexpectedquarter, as well as from certainquarters which had historically opposed it
allquarters of the socialist movement;praise from Conservativequarters
1897,National and English Review, page499:
It is something to have that sacerdotal position so frankly recognized; but, I repeat, the ground of objection is an extraordinary one, coming as it does from a Liberalquarter in politics.
2003,The Advocate, page44:
V. Gene Robinson's installation as an Episcopal bishop was greeted largely by silence from gayquarters.
2016, Michael Eric Dyson,The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,→ISBN:
[…] and principled criticism of Obama from blackquarters.
1955, J.R.R. Tolkien,The Return of the King, page1110:
Hard fighting and long labour they had still; for the Southrons were bold men and grim, and fierce in despair, and the Easterlings were strong and war-hardened and asked forno quarter.
(heraldry) To display different coats of arms in the quarters of a shield.
1950 June, Michael Robbins, “Heraldry of London Underground Railways”, inRailway Magazine, page382:
It [the Central London Railway] assumed a modest and entirely heraldic device,quartering the arms of the City of London, the parishes of St. George's, Holborn (St. George and the dragon) and St. Marylebone (the Virgin and Child between two lilies[…]), and the county of Middlesex, surmounted by the dragon's wing from the City's crest.
