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
I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912
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The Lion of Mars
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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.
There were three quarters of a million people of African descent, thousands of Native Americans, people from every European nation and quite a few from elsewhere.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
Business investment was up, with a rise in spending on machinery and equipment as well outlays on engineering structures, following two straight quarters of declines.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
"There are three quarters of a million people summitting annually, so queues are likely to be expected in peak times," the spokesman added.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
The advance was led by a jump in shipment of passenger cars and light trucks following a recovery in automotive production, after seeing declines in the previous two quarters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
After another three hours and only an additional three quarters of a mile, the Boss called a halt.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
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.
