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Quillet

.

An evasion. In French “pleadings” each separate allegation in the plaintiff’s charge, and every distinct plea in the defendant’s answer used to begin with quʹil est; whence our quillet, to signify a false charge, or an evasive answer.

“Oh, some authority how to proceed;

Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil.”


Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv. 2.

 

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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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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
Quintilians
Quip Modest (The)