Definitions for quaint
kweɪntquaint

Princeton's WordNet(4.67 / 3 votes)Rate this definition:

1. quaintadjective

   strange in an interesting or pleasing way

   "quaint dialect words"; "quaint streets of New Orleans, that most foreign of American cities"

2. quaintadjective

   very strange or unusual; odd or even incongruous in character or appearance

   "the head terminating in the quaint duck bill which gives the animal its vernacular name"- Bill Beatty; "came forth a quaint and fearful sight"- Sir Walter Scott; "a quaint sense of humor"

3. old-time, quaint, olde worldeadjective

   attractively old-fashioned (but not necessarily authentic)

   "houses with quaint thatched roofs"; "a vaulted roof supporting old-time chimney pots"

Wiktionary(4.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. quaintnoun

   The vulva.

2. quaintadjective

   Of a person: cunning, crafty.

3. quaintadjective

   Cleverly made; artfully contrived.

4. quaintadjective

   Strange or odd; unusual.

5. quaintadjective

   Overly discriminating or needlessly meticulous; fastidious; prim.

6. quaintadjective

   Pleasingly unusual; especially, having old-fashioned charm.

7. Etymology: From cointe, queinte et al., cointe, from cognitus, past participle of cognosco.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. QUAINTadjective

   Etymology: coint, Fr. comptus, Lat.

   1. Nice; scrupulously, minutely, superfluously exact; having petty elegance.

   Each ear sucks up the words a true love scattereth,
   And plain speech oft, than quaint phrase framed is. Philip Sidney.

   You were glad to be employ’d,
   To shew how quaint an orator you are. William Shakespeare.

   He spends some pages about two similitudes; one of mine, and another quainter of his own. Edward Stillingfleet.

   2. Subtle; artful. Obsolete.

   As clerkes been full subtle and queint. Geoffrey Chaucer.

   3. Neat; pretty; exact.

   But for a fine, quaint, graceful and excellent fashion, yours is worth ten on’t. William Shakespeare.

   Her mother hath intended,
   That, quaint in green, she shall be loose enrob’d
   With ribbands pendent, flaring ’bout her head. William Shakespeare.

   I never saw a better fashion’d gown,
   More quaint, more pleasing, nor more commendable. Sha.

   4. Subtly excogitated; finespun.

   I’ll speak of frays,
   Like a fine bragging youth, and tell quaint lies,
   How honourable ladies sought my love,
   Which I denying they fell sick and died. William Shakespeare.

   He his fabrick of the heav’ns
   Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move
   His laughter at their quaint opinions wide
   Hereafter. John Milton, Par. Lost, b. viii.

   5. Quaint Edmund Spenser, I believe by a very licentious irregularity.

   With such fair slight him Guyon fail’d:
   Till at the last, all breathless, weary and faint,
   Him spying, with fresh onset he assail’d,
   And kindling new his courage, seeming quaint,
   Struck him so hugely, that through great constraint
   He made him stoop. Fairy Queen, b. ii.

   6. Affected; foppish. This is not the true idea of the word, which Jonathan Swift seems not to have well understood.

   To this we owe those monstrous productions, which under the name of trips, spies, amusements, and other conceited appellations, have overrun us; and I wish I could say, those quaint fopperies were wholly absent from graver subjects. Jonathan Swift.

Webster Dictionary(3.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Quaintadjective

   prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily

2. Quaintadjective

   characterized by ingenuity or art; finely fashioned; skillfully wrought; elegant; graceful; nice; neat

3. Quaintadjective

   curious and fanciful; affected; odd; whimsical; antique; archaic; singular; unusual; as, quaint architecture; a quaint expression

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(3.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Quaint

   kwānt, adj. unusual: odd: whimsical: (obs.) prim, affectedly nice: fine: (Shak.) clever.—adv. Quaint′ly.—n. Quaint′ness. [O. Fr. coint—L. cognitus, known. Some confusion with L. comptus, neat, is probable.]

How to pronounce quaint?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say quaint in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of quaint in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of quaint in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of quaint in a Sentence

1. Andy Carroll:

   This generation sees letters as a very quaint, bygone thing that people used to do, but what they contain is some of the most extraordinary, most powerful sentiments and emotions because everything is more vibrant through the lens of warfare.

2. Northrop Frye:

   Popular art is normally decried as vulgar by the cultivated people of its time; then it loses favor with its original audience as a new generation grows up; then it begins to merge into the softer lighting of quaint, and cultivated people become interested in it, and finally it begins to take on the archaic dignity of the primitive.

3. John Jay Chapman:

   If American politics does not look to you like a joke, a tragic dance; if you have enough blindness left in you, on any plea, on any excuse, to vote for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party (for at present machine and party are one), or for any candidate who does not stand for a new era, -- then you yourself pass into the slide of the magic-lantern; you are an exhibit, a quaint product, a curiosity of the American soil. You are part of the problem.

4. James Joyce:

   Across the page the numbers moved in grave morrice, in the mummery of their letters, wearing quaint caps of squares and cubes.

5. Clive Moore:

   A current joke is that people lament the decline of Honiara's quaint Honiaras Chinatown, which is no longer central, but then others say it does not matter as the whole of Honiara is Honiaras Chinatown now.

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