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.
The “weak spot” of the four-year presidential cycle tends to fall in the second and third quarters of midterm-election years, or roughly from April through September, according to the Stock Trader’s Almanac.
From MarketWatch • May 23, 2026
They think the revenue beat was likely driven by the recognition of deferred revenue accumulated in the past two quarters.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
Following good customer feedback in the ES9 preorder data, Nomura remains positive on the company and expects NIO to deliver sequential improvement in shipments and financials into later quarters this year.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
But despite the group's profit growth, Nvidia shares failed to get a boost as they have in previous quarters, gaining 0.2 percent after trading got underway in New York.
From Barron's • May 21, 2026
Instead, he took the turnoff that led to the servants’ quarters behind the pool house.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
