Forms: 5 quar(r)ey, querry, 6 quarye, 6–7 quarrie, (7 -ey, quarie), 6– quarry, (9 dial. wharry). [a. med.L. quareia (1266 in Du Cange), var. of quareria, etc. QUARRER, q.v. See also QUAR sb.2, QUARREL sb.2]
1. An open-air excavation from which stone for building or other purposes is obtained by cutting, blasting, or the like; a place where the rock has been, or is being, cut away in order to be utilized.
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 3657. Wt an hors … He ladde stones from þe quarey to þe chirche.
1458. R. Fannande, Inscr. St. Helen’s, Abingdon, in Leland, Itin. (1769), VII. 80. Than crafti men for the querry made crowes of yre.
1480. Caxton, Descr. Brit., 5. Quareyes of marble of diuerse maner stones.
1562. Act 5 Eliz., c. 13 § 3. The Rubbish or smallest broken Stones of any Quarry.
1577. Northbrooke, Diving (1843), 135. Let him be punished and cast … in the quarries to digge stones.
1664. Dryden, Rival Ladies, II. i. If thou wouldst offer both the Indies to me, The Eastern Quarries, and the Western Mines.
1728. Young, Love of Fame, I. 168. Belus … builds himself a name; and, to be great, Sinks in a quarry an immense estate!
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, xxxvii. Walls supply stones more easily than quarries.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, xv. II. 320. The quarries were filled with these unfortunate captives.
1877. Amelia B. Edwards, Up Nile, vii. 165. An ancient quarry from which the stone has been cut out in smooth masses.
fig. 1647. Cowley, Mistr., Thraldom, v. Others with sad and tedious art, Labour i’ the Quarries of a stony Heart.
1663. Sir G. Mackenzie, Relig. Stoic, xvii. (1685), 152. That matchless Book of Genesis, whereof each sentence seems a quarry of rich meditations.
1847. Ld. Lindsay, Chr. Art, I. 60. The whole quarry of legends, ceremonies and superstitions which Rome … employed in the structure of … the church of the middle ages.
b. transf. Any place from which stones may be obtained as from a quarry.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, II. 364. Houses, temples, the monuments of the dead, were the quarries from which they drew.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872), I. 48. Its walls were a quarry of precious stones.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 220. The ruins of the Roman town still remained as a quarry; where all who would might seek materials for their own buildings.
† 2. A large mass of stone or rock in its natural state, capable of being quarried. Obs.
c. 1630. Milton, Passion, 46. On the softned Quarry would I score My plaining vers.
1670. Dryden, 2nd Pt. Conq. Granada, V. i. As some huge rock, Rent from its quarry, does the waves divide.
1712. J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 107. When they meet with Rocks or Quarries, they make use of Gun-powder to blow them up.
1764. Museum Rust., II. lxxviii. 272. Where lucern is planted upon a quarry, if the stone hath not many interstices … the length of the roots will be impeded.
fig. a. 1625. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgr., V. iv. Though I am none of those Flinty fathers, yet … All are not of my quarry.
† 3. The hard granular part of a pear. Obs. rare–1. (So F. carrière.)
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 47. Besides these Parts, a Pear has one called the Quarry, which is a little heap of stony Knobs.
4. attrib. and Comb., as quarry-cart, -district, -ground, -hole, -land, -mason, -master, -owner, -pit, -rid (refuse), -slave, -stone, etc.; quarrylike adj.; quarry-faced a., rough-faced, as taken from the quarry; quarry-stone bond, rubble masonry; quarry-sap, -water, the moisture contained in newly quarried stone.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric. (1807), I. 62. The *quarry-cart, a strong low cart for the loading and carrying of heavy stones.
1577. Harrison, England, II. xxii. (1877), I. 337. Where the rocks and *quarrie grounds are.
1891. G. Neilson, Per Lineam Valli, 32. There must be hundreds of *quarry-holes, mere surface pitmarks on the hill sides, which can never be expressly proved Roman, but are Roman nevertheless.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 289. Rock and *quarry-land, with sandy gravels, abound there.
1856. Mrs. H. B. Stowe, Dred, II. VI. 76. They are *quarry-masters, that quarry out marble enough for a generation to work up.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1676), 955. Dionysius … sent him forthwith to dig in the *Quarry-pit.
1862. Min. Proc. Inst. C. E., XXI. 482. Covered with a layer of puddled clay … *‘quarry rid’ and broken stone.
1883. Stonemason, Jan. So that … the *quarry sap might be thoroughly dried out of them, and the stone … fit for use.
1813. J. Forsyth, Rem. Excurs. Italy, 271. An iron crow … appears to have been left there by some ancient *quarry-slave.
1856. Bryant, Thanatopsis, 17. Like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 22. Stone when freshly taken from the quarry usually holds moisture, known to the workman as *‘quarry water.’
