quarters
Britishplural noun
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housing or accommodation, esp as provided for military personnel and their families
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the stations assigned to military personnel, esp to each crew member of a warship
general quarters
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(in India) housing provided by an employer or by the government
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slang (functioning as singular) military short for quartermaster
Explanation
A place for people to live, especially if they're in the military, can be called quarters. If you join the Army, your quarters might be a dorm-like space that you share with many other people. You can use this word to mean "housing" generally, although it's most common for soldiers and servants to live in quarters. A wealthy family with maids and a butler who live in their house might set aside servants' quarters on the top floor, for example. During the period of slavery in the US, slaves also lived in quarters. If you and your brother live in "close quarters," it means the two of you share a fairly small room.
Vocabulary lists containing quarters
The Lion of Mars
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I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912
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Three Keys
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Two crossing paths divide the space into four quarters planted with lavender and potted lemon trees.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026
The spike in gas prices accounted for nearly three quarters of the rise in inflation from February to March.
From BBC • Apr. 10, 2026
Recent performance data demonstrates that private equity has underperformed conventional stock portfolios, with annualized returns of 5.8% from 2022 through the first three quarters of 2025 compared to the S&P 500’s 11.6% return.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026
With greater disconnection from home and tight living quarters, mental health could pose the greatest danger to astronauts on such missions, Platts said.
From Barron's • Apr. 10, 2026
So a dotted half note, for example, would last as long as a half note plus a quarter note, or three quarters of a whole note.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
