quirt
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Spanish cuerda (“cord”), or Mexican Spanish cuarta (“whip”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
quirt (plural quirts)
- A rawhide whip plaited with two thongs of buffalo hide.
- 1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 177, column 2:
- He sprang into the saddle easily as a bird, got the quirt from the horn, and gave his pony a slash with it.
- 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 3, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
- He paused a moment and flicked a sage-brush with his quirt.
- 1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter I, in The Understanding Heart:
- […] when the young man whirled his horse, “hazed” Jupiter in circles and belaboured him with a rawhide quirt, […] He ceased his cavortings […]
- 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:
- He wore a revolver down low, with ammunition belt, and carried a small quirt of some kind, and pieces of leather hanging everywhere, like a walking torture chamber: shiny shoes, low-hanging jacket, cocky hat, everything but boots.
- 1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin, published 2001, page 96:
- She raised the handle of her beautiful quirt to her eyes and scanned the Western horizon.
- 1994, Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing:
- He rode his horse with the reins tied and he wore a pistol at his belt and a plain flatcrowned hat of a type no longer much seen in that country and he wore tooled boots to his knees and carried a quirt.
Translations[edit]
a rawhide whip plaited with two thongs of buffalo hide
Verb[edit]
quirt (third-person singular simple present quirts, present participle quirting, simple past and past participle quirted)
- To strike with a quirt.
Synonyms[edit]
- (to whip or scourge): Thesaurus:whip