quire

[kwahyuh r]

noun, verb (used with or without object), quired, quir·ing.

Archaic. choir.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for quiring

Historical Examples of quiring

Shakespeare himself ranged from gross naturalism to the quiring of cherubim.
Ivory Apes and Peacocks
James Huneker
Now it is a merry din of quiring finches, all talking together.
Doctor Cupid
Rhoda Broughton
It is as if the pearly gates had been opened for a brief interval to let the earth hear the “quiring of the young-eyed cherubims.”
Some Spring Days in Iowa
Frederick John Lazell
Mother kept 'quiring 'bout 'em as long as she lived and I have hoped dat I could hear from 'em.
Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States
Various

British Dictionary definitions for quiring

quire

noun

a set of 24 or 25 sheets of paper; a twentieth of a ream

four sheets of paper folded once to form a section of 16 pages
a section or gathering

a set of all the sheets in a book

Word Origin for quire

C15 quayer, from Old French quaier, from Latin quaternī four at a time, from quater four times

quire

noun

an obsolete spelling of choir

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for quiring

quire

n.1

c.1200, "set of four folded pages for a book; pamphlet consisting of a single quire," from Anglo-French quier, Old French quaier "sheet of paper folded in four," from Vulgar Latin *quaternus, from Latin quaterni "four each," from quater "four times." Meaning "standard unit for selling paper" first recorded late 14c. In quires (late 15c.) means "unbound."

quire

n.2

early form and later variant spelling of choir (q.v.).