[In sense 1 app. from QUARTER sb.1 16; sense 2 (from QUARTER sb. 15) is app. the original meaning of F. quartier-maîstre, Du. kwartier-meester, G. quartier-meister, etc., and may have been adopted from one or other of these languages.]
1. Naut. A petty officer who attends to the steering of the ship, the binnacle, signals, stowing of the hold, etc.
1442. Rolls Parlt., V. 60/1. The Maisters of the Shippes, Quarter Maisters, Shipmen and Soudeours.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1570), ¶¶ iij. Purser and Captayne, Quarter master, Lodesman.
1549. Compl. Scot., vi. 41. Euery quartar master til his auen quartar.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Sea-men, 5. The quarter Maisters hath the charge of the hold for stowage, rommageing, and trimming the shippe, and of their squadrons for their Watch.
1643. Declar. Commons, Reb. Irel., 50. He is one of the Quarter-masters of the Dunkirke Frigot.
1708. Royal Proclam., 20 May, in Lond. Gaz., No. 4440/1. The Midshipmen,… Quarter-Master, Quarter-Masters Mates,… and Serjeants of Marines.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xxvi. Up with the helm, quarter-master.
b. transf. Steering-gear.
1882. Standard, 26 Dec., 2/2. She will have a brigantine rig,… and [be] steered by a steam ‘quartermaster.’
1899. F. T. Bullen, Way Navy, 37. Like everything else in this giant vessel, the steam quartermaster is on an immense scale.
2. Mil. An officer, ranking as lieutenant, attached to each regiment, with the duties of providing quarters for the soldiers, laying out the camp, and looking after the rations, ammunition and other supplies of the regiment.
1600. Dymmok, Ireland (1843), 33. The small losse we susteyned … was multiplied upon the rebell by our quarter and skoutmasters.
a. 1653. Gouge, Comm. Heb. vi. 18 (1655), 112. A quarter-master, who goeth before hand to prepare quarters for souldiers.
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 97. The king … made him a quarter-master to a troop of cuirassiers.
1803. Wellington, Lett. to Col. Stevenson, 16 Sept., in Gurw., Desp. (1837), II. 308. I rather believe that your Quarter Masters have 1000 bullocks for each regiment.
1893. Forbes-Mitchell, Remin. Gt. Mutiny, 150. Our quartermaster divided among us a lot of shirts and underclothing.
b. Quartermaster-general, a staff-officer who is chief of the department exercising control over all matters relating to the quartering, encamping, marching and equipment of troops.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3732/1. The said Quartermaster-General and Adjutant-General Baron Riedt were sent out to view the Ground.
1813. Wellington, Lett. to Sir G. Collier, 19 Aug., in Gurw., Desp. (1838), XI. 15. I enclose a letter to the Quarter Master General directing that the Infantry now in the horse ships at Bilbao may be removed.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., V. xliv. 35. Mifflin, who in August had been appointed quartermaster-general.
c. Quartermaster-sergeant, a non-commissioned officer, ranking as a staff-sergeant, who assists the quartermaster in his duties.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 309. The Serjeant-major and Quarter-master-serjeant are entitled to two rooms and a kitchen.
† 3. One who shares authority with another to the extent of a fourth. Obs.
Prob. transf. from sense 1, with pun on quarter = one fourth; cf. QUARTER sb. 27 d.
1550. Latimer, Last Serm. bef. Edw. VI., 111. They do it, because they will be quarter maister with their husbandes: Quarter maister? nay halfe maisters: yea some of them will be whole maisters.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, I. i. 7. Discerne you no better betweene Popes and Councels, which are the Church in effect? or shall these play quarter-masters with the Pope?
1685. R. Burton, Eng. Emp. Amer., ii. 28. The English Nation … might have made themselves Quarter-Masters, at least with the Spaniards.
† 4. A gild-official, having charge of the gildsmen in a quarter of the town. Obs.
1646. in G. Tate, Alnwick, II. xvii. 338. It is agreed that none of the wood shall be sould but with the consent of the four quartermaisters.
[1868–9. G. Tate, Alnwick, II. xvii. 338. Wood and bark were therefore bought for the whole company, by officers called quartermasters, who allotted to each tanner a proportional share of every purchase.]
Hence Quartermaster v., to perform the duties of a quartermaster (hence quartermastering vbl. sb.); Quartermasteriveness, the qualities of a quartermaster (nonce-wd.); Quartermastership, the office of quartermaster (so also Quartermaster-generalship).
1745. Observ. conc. Navy, 44. Sales of Ensignships, Adjutancies, Quarter-Master-ships, &c.
1824. J. Macculloch, Highl. Scotl., I. 370. His organ of quarter-masteriveness must have been woefully in arrear.
1862. Times, 8 Jan., 8/6. Questions of massing, manœuvring, or quartermastering.
1870. Daily News, 3 Nov., 6/2. The quartermastership generally of the district around Metz.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., VI. Index 553. [Greene] resigns [the] quartermaster-generalship abruptly.
