quat

• IPA^(key): /kwɒt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒt

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

quat (plural quats)

1. (obsolete) A pustule.
2. (obsolete) An annoying, worthless person.
   • 1565, William Shakespeare, Othello:

     I have rubb'd this young quat almost to the sense, And he grows angry.

quat (third-person singular simple present quats, present participle quatting, simple past and past participle quatted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To satiate.
   • 1757, Samuel Foote, The Author, Act II, Scene ii, 1765, The Dramatic Works, Volume 1, page 28,

     Mrs. Cad. Well, come, begin and ſtart me, that I may come the ſooner to quatting——Huſh ! here′s Siſter ; what the deuce brought her !

2. (Scotland, dialectal, transitive) To relinquish, forsake, give up.

   Ye hae grown proud since ye quatted the begging. — Scottish proverb, said satirically.

   • 1813, Hugh Porter, Poetical attempts, page 35:

     'Mang mis'ry's posts, whar I did sit, My tongue took sic a faltrin' fit, I thought the wee remains o' wit I had, was quat me

   • 1868, John Wilson, Recreations of Christopher North, Volume 2:

     They seem to our ears indeed to have "quat their roaring play."

3. (Wales and Southwest England, dialectal, intransitive) To squat or crouch down.
   • 1700, Ta Paidia Tēs Kythereias; Or, King's Place In An Uproar, page 10:

     Tho' B-lt-n, quatted in the hall, Her jolly r-mpfs display'd, The size of it amaz'd them all, and Hector quite dismay'd.

   • 1870, William Bottrell, Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall:

     This cows' courant so excited the tinners' curiosity that they went up the hill till they saw the two men wrestling, with the women looking on; then they quatted (stooped) down in a brake of furze to watch the play without being seen.

   • 1932, Ernest Thompson Seton, Famous Animal Stories, page 678:

     Tarka quatted on the ledge ; he knew that Deadlock would follow hiin wherever he swam in water.

   • 2013, R. M. Lienau, The Truchas Light: A Novel, →ISBN, page 155:

     She quatted down next to him and rubbed his shoulder.

quat (not comparable)

1. (Scotland, dialectal, with "of") Free; no longer involved with; quit.
   • 1838, Chambers's Journal, page 134:

     My word, I gie him nae encouragement ! I canna bide the sicht o' him, and wad gie the best gown I hae to be quat o' him."

   • 1861, Mrs. Oliphant, The House on the Moor:

     There it is, sir—Im blythe to be quat of it; pitch it from ye furder than I can see.

   • 1895, William Stewart, Lilts and Larks Frae Larkie, page 177:

     HECH me, but I'm weary, I'm heart-sick and sad ; O' my kinsfolk I've got quite a wamefu', I wush I was quat o' the d — nable squad — Forgi'e me for sweerin' sae shamefu'.

Clipping of quaternary.

quat (plural quats)

1. (chemistry) A quaternary ammonium cation or compound.
   • 2009 October 1, Hilary Howard, “New Ways to Moisturize for Less”, in The New York Times‎:

     “Because quats are positively charged, and skin proteins have a slightly negative charge, quats like to attach themselves to skin,” said Greg Nole, a manager at Unilever, the parent company of Vaseline and Dove.

quat (not comparable)

1. Quaternary.

See khat.

quat (countable and uncountable, plural quats)

1. Alternative spelling of khat.

quat

1. Alternative form of wothe

• kōt

From Proto-West Germanic *kwād.

quāt m

1. mud
2. dirt

• Middle High German: quāt, kāt, quōt, kōt
  • German: Kot
  • Cimbrian: khòat