quarter section

American  

noun

Western U.S.

1. (in surveying and homesteading) a square tract of land, half a mile on each side, thus containing ¼ sq. mi. or 160 acres. q.s.

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quarter section British  

noun

1. a land measure, used in surveying, with sides half a mile long; 160 acres

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Etymology

Origin of quarter section

An Americanism dating back to 1795–1805

Example Sentences

Harnack's narrator is a middle-aged dirt farmer named August who left Iowa in his youth, then returned, half unwilling, to the quarter section staked out by his grandfather.

From Time Magazine Archive

Secretary Roper precipitately announced that PWA would allocate $1,500,000 to build a quarter section of one sea-drome behind the Delaware Breakwater.

From Time Magazine Archive

My idea is to learn farming out here, and some day to take up a quarter section of land.

From A Boy of the Dominion A Tale of Canadian Immigration by Brereton, F. S. (Frederick Sadleir)

"They are never here," said Spaight, jumping from the auto and sweeping his hand about over a beautiful quarter section of land, one of the finest in the county.

From The Homesteader A Novel by Micheaux, Oscar

Fill your pannican of tea, spread out your biscuits, cut off a quarter section of your roast suckling, and fall to, and a hundred to one you never ate anything more delicious.

From Canadian Wilds Tells About the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Indians and Their Modes of Hunting, Trapping, Etc. by Hunter, Martin