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.