quiz
- an informal test or examination of a student or class.
- a questioning.
- a practical joke; a hoax.
- Chiefly British. an eccentric, often odd-looking person.
- to examine or test (a student or class) informally by questions.
- to question closely: The police quizzed several suspects.
- Chiefly British. to make fun of; ridicule; mock; chaff.
Origin of quiz
Examples from the Web for quizzes
Contemporary Examples
At the gym, he quizzes the Christian jogging on the neighboring treadmill about the nature of subjective experience.
Atheist Philosopher Peter Boghossian’s Guide to Converting BelieversMichael Schulson
November 2, 2013
Citrin quizzes her grandfather on political issues: “Do you like your Medicare?”
Historical Examples
For students of the first year quizzes or recitations should be held at least twice a week.
College TeachingPaul Klapper
If you wanted to figure out who the Xnetters were, you could use these quizzes to find them all.
Little BrotherCory Doctorow
None but quizzes and quozzes ever came out with any thing of that sort.
Tales And Novels, Volume 1 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
Thus in the “Prologue in Heaven” he quizzes the Archangels about the grandiloquence of their song.
He did very well on quizzes and tests, and he never let the pitcher fake him out when he was at bat.
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves TownCory Doctorow
quiz
- an entertainment in which the general or specific knowledge of the players is tested by a series of questions, esp as a radio or television programme
- (as modifier)a quiz programme
- any set of quick questions designed to test knowledge
- an investigation by close questioning; interrogation
- obsolete a practical joke; hoax
- obsolete a puzzling or eccentric individual
- obsolete a person who habitually looks quizzically at others, esp through a small monocle
- to investigate by close questioning; interrogate
- US and Canadian informal to test or examine the knowledge of (a student or class)
- (tr) obsolete to look quizzically at, esp through a small monocle
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for quizzes
quiz
n.
1867, "brief examination of a student on some subject," perhaps from quiz (v.), or from apparently unrelated slang word quiz "odd person" (1782, source of quizzical). According to OED, the anecdote that credits this word to a bet by the Dublin theater-manager Daly or Daley that he could coin a word is regarded by authorities as "doubtful" and the first record of it appears to be in 1836 (in Smart's "Walker Remodelled"; the story is omitted in the edition of 1840).
The word Quiz is a sort of a kind of a word
That people apply to some being absurd;
One who seems, as t'were oddly your fancy to strike
In a sort of a fashion you somehow don't like
A mixture of odd, and of queer, and all that
Which one hates, just, you know, as some folks hate a cat;
A comical, whimsical, strange, droll -- that is,
You know what I mean; 'tis -- in short, -- 'tis a quiz!
[from "Etymology of Quiz," Charles Dibdin, 1842]
quiz
v.
1847, "to question," quies, perhaps from Latin qui es? "who are you?," first question in oral exams in Latin in old-time grammar schools. Spelling quiz first recorded 1886, though it was in use as a noun spelling from 1867, perhaps in this case from apparently unrelated slang word quiz "odd person" (1782, source of quizzical). Cf. quisby "queer, not quite right; bankrupt" (slang from 1807). From the era of radio quiz shows comes quizzee (n.), 1940.