1. That takes place, is done, etc., every quarter of a year; relating to, or covering, a quarter of a year. † Quarterly waiter = QUARTER-WAITER.
1563. in Maitl. Club Misc. (1833), 32. Takand ilk quarter 2250l. As the capitane of the said Gardis quarterlie acquittances proportis.
1688. Miége, s.v., The quarterly Seasons of Devotion, called the Ember-weeks.
1727. Boyer, Fr.-Angl. Dict., s.v. Quartier, Officier de Quartier, a quarterly Waiter.
1750. Wesley, Wks. (1872), II. 205. We had a Quarterly Meeting.
1802. Miss Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xix. 158. Quarterly and half-yearly payments.
1862. Sala, Ship-Chandler, 37. Mine is a quarterly hiring, and my quarter is out to-morrow.
1885. Law Times, LXXIX. 191/1. The necessity of having a quarterly gaol delivery.
transf. 1694. W. Holder, On Time, i. 22. For she [the moon] makes also four Quarterly Seasons within her little Year, or Month of Consecution.
2. Pertaining or relating to a quarter (in other senses). † Quarterly book: (see quot. 1776). Quarterly wind, a wind on the quarter.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Vent de quartier, a quarterly, or quartering wind.
1776. Johnson, Lett. to Wetherell, 12 March, in Boswell, II. 14. We must … superadd what is called the quarterly-book, or for every hundred books so charged we must deliver an hundred and four.
1889. Standard, 16 March, 3/8. The wind blew from the East, and was, therefore, quarterly.
B. sb. A quarterly review, magazine, etc.
1855. in Ogilvie, Suppl.
1871. Besant & Rice, Ready-money Mort., iv. He had written papers for what were vaguely called the Quarterlies.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, III. i. 10. ‘Oh, there are the new Quarterlies!’ said Christabel, seeing a package on the table.
