quire2
[kwahyuh r]
- Archaic. choir.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for quiring
Historical Examples
Shakespeare himself ranged from gross naturalism to the quiring of cherubim.
Ivory Apes and PeacocksJames Huneker
Now it is a merry din of quiring finches, all talking together.
Doctor CupidRhoda 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 IowaFrederick John Lazell
Mother kept 'quiring 'bout 'em as long as she lived and I have hoped dat I could hear from 'em.
quire1
- 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
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Word Origin
C15 quayer, from Old French quaier, from Latin quaternī four at a time, from quater four times
quire2
- an obsolete spelling of choir
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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."
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quire
n.2
early form and later variant spelling of choir (q.v.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper