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Quieʹtus

.

The writ of discharge formerly granted to those barons and knights who personally attended the king on a foreign expedition. At their discharge they were exempt from the claim of scutage or knight’s fee. Subsequently the term was applied to the acquittance which a sheriff receives on settling his account at the Exchequer; and, later still, to any discharge of an account: thus Webster says—

“You had the trick in audit-time to be sick till I had signed your quietus.”—Duchess of Malfy (1623).

Quietus. A severe blow; a settler; death, or discharge from life.


“Who would fardels bear


When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin?”


 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Half a Quid
Quids
Quid Libet
Quid of Tobacco
Quid pro Quo
Quid Rides
Quiddity
Quidnunc
Quidnunkis
Quietist (A)
Quietus
Quill-drivers
Quillet
Quilp
Quinapalus
Quinbus Flestrin
Quince (Peter)
Quinones (Suero de)
Quinquagesima Sunday (Latin, fiftieth)
Quinsy
Quintessence

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