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.
In the last three quarters, it added 3,300 more.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Investors should compare operating cash flow, capital spending and financing commitments over several quarters, allowing for the timing of construction and equipment purchases.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
Anthropic's revenue has risen in successive quarters this year, from $4.7bn in the first three months to $11.6bn the following period.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
Even if things were to steady out, banks still likely face tougher resource choices in the quarters ahead.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Since beats normally get divided into halves and quarters, this is the easiest way for composers to write beats that are divided into thirds.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
