last quarter

American

noun

Astronomy.

the instant, approximately one week after a full moon, when half of the moon's disk is illuminated by the sun.

last quarter British

noun

one of the four principal phases of the moon, occurring between full moon and new moon, when half the lighted surface is visible Compare first quarter

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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last quarter

For the TV category, roughly 28% of the 1,607 shoot days last quarter were for projects that benefited from the tax incentive, particularly for dramas and comedies.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026

Sales for that unit rose 31% in the quarter after rising 16% last quarter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The company also increased its capital expenditure estimate for the full year to as much as $205 billion, a jump from $190 billion last quarter.

From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026

Krishna needs to answer one question convincingly: Did the last quarter represent a spending pause—or a shift?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

“Exxon comes out with its earnings and we need to get that as fast as possible up on screens around the world: ‘Exxon earned thirty-nine cents this quarter as opposed to thirty-six cents last quarter.’

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023