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Quail vs Quake - What's the difference?

quail | quake |

In intransitive terms the difference between quail and quake

is that quail is to slacken, give way (of courage, faith etc.) while quake is to tremble or shake.

As a proper noun Quail

is {{surname|from=Scottish Gaelic}.

quail

English

(wikipedia quail)

Etymology 1

Origin uncertain; perhaps related to (etyl) queilen.

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete) * (l)

Verb

(en verb)
  • To waste away; to fade, wither.
  • * 1978 , (Lawrence Durrell), Livia , Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 358:
    • To tell the truth the prospect rather quailed him – wandering about in the gloomy corridors of a nunnery.
  • To lose heart or courage; to be daunted, fearful.
  • * Longfellow
    • Stouter hearts than a woman's have quailed in this terrible winter.
  • * 1886 , (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde):
    • 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 recognized it for one that he had himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll.
  • * 1949 , (George Orwell), Nineteen Eighty-Four , p. 25:
    • His heart quailed before the enormous pyramidal shape.
  • To slacken, give way (of courage, faith etc.).

    • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) ).

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • Any of various small game birds of the genera Coturnix'', ''Anurophasis'' or ''Perdicula in the Old World family Phasianidae or of the New World family Odontophoridae.
  • (obsolete) A prostitute; so called because the quail was thought to be a very amorous bird.
    • (Shakespeare)
    Derived terms
    * common quail * quailish

    See also

    * partridge

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) coaillier, (etyl) cailler, from (etyl) (lena) coagulare. See coagulate.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To curdle; to coagulate, as milk does.
    • (Holland)
    (Webster 1913)

    quake

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A trembling]] or [[shake, shaking.
    • We felt a quake in the apartment every time the train went by .
  • An earthquake, a trembling of the ground with force.
    • California is plagued by quakes ; there are a few minor ones almost every month .

    Verb

  • (lb) To tremble or shake.
  • :
  • *Sir (Philip Sidney) (1554-1586)
  • *:She stood quaking like the partridge on which the hawk is ready to seize.
  • *
  • *:Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
  • To cause to tremble or shake.
  • :(Shakespeare)

    • Derived terms

    * Quaker ----