quaint
Americanadjective
-
having an old-fashioned attractiveness or charm; oddly picturesque.
a quaint old house.
- Synonyms:
- archaic, antiquated
-
strange, peculiar, or unusual in an interesting, pleasing, or amusing way.
a quaint sense of humor.
- Antonyms:
- ordinary
-
skillfully or cleverly made.
-
Obsolete. wise; skilled.
adjective
-
attractively unusual, esp in an old-fashioned style
a quaint village
-
odd, peculiar, or inappropriate
a quaint sense of duty
Other Word Forms
- quaintly adverb
- quaintness noun
Etymology
Origin of quaint
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English queinte, from Old French, variant of cointe “clever, pleasing,” from Latin cognitus “learned, known,” past participle of cognōscere “to learn, become acquainted”; cognition
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.
Most of the displaced are now sardined in the city’s quaint Old Quarter, which lies on a promontory jutting out of Tyre’s northernmost tip and is excluded from the evacuation order.
From Los Angeles Times
The council approved a zoning change and unveiled a plan to build 120 apartments for an estimated $91 million in the quaint town center, a stone’s throw from several gourmet restaurants.
With a bot as my travel agent, I traveled to the little-known, but quaint English town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea.
That long-ago mishmash of horses, poets and peacemakers seems quaint today.
Cities are squalid crime hives that need to be tamed or abandoned in the Sheridanverse, whereas small towns and Western vistas are quaint canvases fertile with possibility.
From Salon
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.
