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.
“It may take a few quarters to sort through all of this, but the long-term trend is highly positive,” he added.
From MarketWatch • May 7, 2026
The report said observers witnessed prisoners voting in cramped quarters that didn’t allow for privacy and having to hand their ballots to others to put in the box.
From Salon • May 6, 2026
Human-to-human transmission of the Andes strain requires very close contact, like sharing food or living quarters, according Steven Bradfute, an immunologist at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center whose lab has sequenced hantaviruses.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 6, 2026
They are in the final for a reason, semis last year, quarters the year before - this isn't some fluke.
From BBC • May 6, 2026
The lower three quarters of the windows had been papered over, so the restaurant was dim and cool.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
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.
