Adjective

(er)

(obsolete) Of a person: cunning, crafty.

* 1591 , (William Shakespeare), Henry VI part 2 :

But you, my Lord, were glad to be imploy'd, / To shew how queint an Orator you are.

(obsolete) Cleverly made; artfully contrived.

* 1667 , (John Milton), Paradise Lost , Book IX:

describe races and games, / Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, / Impresses quaint , caparisons and steeds, / Bases and tinsel trappings [...].

* 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.4:

Till that there entered on the other side / A straunger knight, from whence no man could reed, / In quyent disguise, full hard to be descride […].

* 1808 , (Walter Scott), Marmion XX:

Lord Gifford, deep beneath the ground, / Heard Alexander's bugle sound, / And tarried not his garb to change, / But, in his wizard habit strange, / Came forth,—a quaint and fearful sight!

* 1924 , Time , 17 Nov 1924:

What none would dispute though many smiled over was the good-humored, necessary, yet quaint omission of the writer's name from the whole consideration.

(obsolete) Overly discriminating or needlessly meticulous; fastidious; prim.

* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.7:

She, nothing quaint / Nor 'sdeignfull of so homely fashion, / Sith brought she was now to so hard constraint, / Sate downe upon the dusty ground anon [...].

Pleasingly unusual; especially, having old-fashioned charm.

* 1815 , (Jane Austen), Emma :

I admire all that quaint , old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; modern ease often disgusts me.

* 2011 , Ian Sample, The Guardian , 31 Jan 2011:

The rock is a haven for rare wildlife, a landscape where pretty hedgerows and quaint villages are bordered by a breathtaking, craggy coastline.

Adjective

(er)

In poor health.

* {{quote-book, year=a1420, year_published=1894, author=The British Museum Additional MS, 12,056

, by=(Lanfranc of Milan), title=Lanfranc's "Science of cirurgie." citation , chapter=Wounds complicated by the Dislocation of a Bone, isbn=1163911380 , publisher=K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, location=London, editor=Robert von Fleischhacker , page=63, passage=Ne take noon hede to brynge togidere þe parties of þe boon þat is to-broken or dislocate, til viij. daies ben goon in þe wyntir, & v. in þe somer; for þanne it schal make quytture, and be sikir from swellynge; & þanne brynge togidere þe brynkis eiþer þe disiuncture after þe techynge þat schal be seid in þe chapitle of algebra.}}

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=7 citation , passage=‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’}}

(colloquial) Mentally unstable, disturbed.

(colloquial) In bad taste.

Having an urge to vomit.

(slang) Very good, excellent, awesome.

In poor condition.

(agriculture) Failing to sustain adequate harvests of crop, usually specified.

Tired of or annoyed by something.