QUAIL
What does "QUAIL" mean?
A small ground-dwelling game bird of the pheasant family.
Meanings
- A small, plump migratory game bird with mottled brown plumage. A covey of quail burst from the grass as the dog approached.
- To draw back or shrink in fear; to lose heart. He did not quail under the judge's hard stare.
Did you know?
- The bird quail and the verb 'to quail' (shrink in fear) only look like the same word: the bird's name imitates its call, while the fearful verb arrived separately from a Germanic root meaning to suffer or wither.
Word origin
The bird is from Old French 'quaille', from Medieval Latin 'quaccula', of imitative origin. The verb 'to lose courage' is of uncertain origin, possibly from Middle Dutch 'quelen' 'to suffer, be ill'.
Remember it
QUAIL hides a 'AIL' - to quail is to feel your courage ail and shrink.
A little poem
Small bird that runs before it flies-
and the small heart in me, the same:
it quails, then learns to keep its ground.
tercet
Wordplay
- The cowardly bird wouldn't fight back. Of course not - it was bred to quail.
What it teaches
Courage isn't the absence of the flinch; it's what you do in the half-second after it.
Quick facts
What does QUAIL mean?
A small ground-dwelling game bird of the pheasant family.
Is QUAIL a valid word?
Yes — QUAIL is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is QUAIL?
QUAIL has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does QUAIL come from?
The bird is from Old French 'quaille', from Medieval Latin 'quaccula', of imitative origin. The verb 'to lose courage' is of uncertain origin, possibly from Middle Dutch 'quelen' 'to suffer, be ill'.
What can QUAIL teach us?
Courage isn't the absence of the flinch; it's what you do in the half-second after it.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.