Obs. Also 7 -aine, 8 -ane. [ad. F. quarantaine (= It. quarantana), f. quarante forty: see next.]
1. A set of forty (nights). rare–1.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, II. i. 1. It is above fourty quarantaines, or fourty times fourty nights, according to the supputation of the ancient Druids.
2. = QUARANTINE 2.
1669. R. Montagu, in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), I. 452. After having made their quarantaine and aired their goods.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2211/1. The Prince of Brunswicke keeps his Quarantain in the Island Lazaro.
1702. W. J., trans. Bruyn’s Voy. Levant, xi. 47. Those who come from infected Places, there to pass their Quarantain.
attrib. 1755. Magens, Insurances, II. 236. Anchorage, ordinary Quarantain Charges, and such like.
b. fig. = QUARANTINE 2 b.
1666–7. Denham, Direct. Paint., I. xvii. There let him languish a long Quarantain.
1714. Let. fr. Layman (ed. 2), 23. This Crime … is never to be purged away; no not by performing a Quarantain for a Twelve-month in the Church.
1741. Warburton, Div. Legat., II. Pref. p. xiv. The Calumnies of his Enemies obliged him to a kind of Quarantane.
3. King’s quarantain (trans. F. quarantaine du roi): see quots.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., Quarantain of the King, in France, denotes a truce of forty days appointed by St. Louis, during which it was expresly forbid to take any revenge [etc.].
1818. A. Ranken, Hist. France, IV. III. i. 233. Forty days, called the King’s quarantain, were allowed the friends or relations of a principal in a private war to grant or find security.
