Forms: 3–7 quartron, (4 -run, -roun, -eroun, quaterone, 6 -eren), 5–7 quarteron, (5 -eren, -rone), 6–7 quarterne, (7 coterne), 7–9 Ir. cartron, 9 quartan, dial. wartern, 6– quartern. [a. AF. quartrun, OF. quart(e)ron, quat(te)ron, used in most of the senses of the E. word (see Godef.) f. quart(e, fourth, fourth part.]
1. A quarter of anything. Obs. exc. dial.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 476/510. With-inne a quartron of þe ȝere huy comen to Marcilie.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 455. A quartrone of a pounde of pynes.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, 20. Take of … greate reasons … a quartron of a pounde.
1587. Harrison, England, II. vi. (1877), I. 159. She addeth … halfe a quarterne of an ounce of baiberries.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 287. Take of Hony a quartern of a pinte.
1647. Will of John Clarke of Scawthorpe (N. W. Linc. Gloss.), Three quatrans of one oxgange of land.
a. 1796. in Pegge, Derbicisms.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss., Quartern, a quarter of anything.
† 2. ellipt. A quarter of something (esp. a weight or measure) already specified. Obs. Cf. 3.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 131. The pound that heo peysede by peisede a quartrun [v.r. quarteroun] more then myn auncel dude.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xxx. 301. There is not the Mone seyn in alle the Lunacioun, saf only the seconde quarteroun.
1480. Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV. (1830), 130. Sylk j lb. an unce and j quarteron.
1496. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 174. A Chalder and a quarteron of Smythes Coles.
1623. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, The Washingtons (1860), App. 42. 2 barrells of neates tongues weight 100 and a coterne. Ibid., 45. For 3 pintes wanting di. a coterne of aquavitæ.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, II. xxix. 187. Weighing nine thousand seven hundred kintals and two quarterons.
3. A quarter of various weights and measures.
a. of a pound. Now rare. b. of an ounce. c. of a chalder, hundredweight, etc. Now only dial. † d. = QUARTER 4 a. e. of a stone or peck. † f. of some measure of land; in Ireland = QUARTER 7 c, or the fourth part of this. g. of a pint.
a. [1326. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 15. In uno quarteroun croci, 161/2d.]
c. 1400. Master of Game, xii. (MS. Digby 182). Take ye vi poundes of hony, and a quartron of vertgrece.
c. 1450. ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich), 173. Tak þre quarterons of clene rosyn, & a quateron of good perrosyn, & half a pounde of good oile de olyue.
1520. Whitinton, Vulg. (1527), 12 b. Bye me a halfe pounde of saffron, a quarteren of cynamon.
1754–6. Connoisseur, No. 76. At every petty Chandler’s shop in town, while the half quarterns of tea are weighed out.
1836–9. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Tales, iv. He dispensed tea and coffee by the quartern, retailed sugar by the ounce.
1878. Cumbld. Gloss., Suppl., Quartern, a quarter of a pound of flax ready for being spun.
b. 1607. T. Cocks, Diary (1901), 5/6. Paide for a quartern of sylke 4d.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Mrs. Hallib. (1864), II. viii. 193. That surly old foreman says … ‘What d’ye leave for silk?… There’s two quarterns down.’
c. 1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 230. iiij quarterons salte.
1590. Recorde, etc. Gr. Arts (1646), 134. There bee greater weights, which are called a hundred, halfe a hundred, and a quarterne, and also a halfe quarterne.
1883. Almondb. & Huddersf. Gloss., Wartern, i. e. a quartern, a weight of woolen warp which is, when complete, twenty-four or twenty-five pounds.
d. 1583. in Collect. (O. H. S.), I. 234. 53 quarterns, 3 bushells of malt.
e. 1836–9. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Tales, iv. Applicants for … half-quarterns of bread.
f. 1679. Blount, Anc. Tenures, 3. Each [bondman] held one Messuage, and one Quartron of Land.
1683. J. Keogh, Acc. Roscommon, in O’Donovan, Tribes Hy-Fiachraich (1844), 454. The lands here are generally set and let … by the name of quarters, cartrons, and gnieves, a quarter being the fourth part of a townland … and a cartron … the fourth part of a quarter.
1883. [see QUARTER 7 c].
g. 1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Quartern, a sort of Measure, the fourth part of a Pint.
1762. Smollett, Launcelot Greaves (1793), II. xvii. 90. The waiter … returned with a quartern of brandy.
1835. Marryat, Jac. Faithf., xxii. There is my mother with a quartern of gin before her.
1839. Carlyle, Chartism, iv. 132. Liquid Madness [Gin] sold at ten-pence the quartern.
† 4. A quarter of a hundred; twenty-five. Quartern-book: (see quot. 1584). Obs.
1472–3. Rolls Parlt., VI. 37/2. Item, C of Milwell and Lyng drye; Item, a quarter of Mersaunte Lydg.
1561. Awdelay, Frat. Vacab., 12. The xxv orders of Knaves, otherwise called a quarterne of Knaves.
1584. Star Chamb. Decree (1863), 15. Any Stationer that shall bye a quarterne at ones or more; which quartern is xxv bokes, in which case the byer hath alwaie a quarterne boke given him freely, that is to saie, one boke for everie xxv that he byeth.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), T.’s Water worke, Ded. A Quarterne of new-catcht Epigrams caught the last Fishing-tide.
1650. Trapp, Comm. Deut. xvii. 4. The Catholikes follow the Bible (saith Hill, in his quartern of Reasons).
5. A quarter of a sheet of paper.
1821. Southey, Lett. (1856), III. 249. During the last year … at Westminster, one imposition served me…. It lasted till the appearance of the quartan might have betrayed its history.
1874. Dasent, Half a Life, I. 232. This message written on a ‘quartern,’ that is, on a quarter of a sheet of ruled paper, on which we wrote our exercises.
6. A quartern-loaf.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., viii. That … loaf which is known to housekeepers as a slack-baked crummy quartern.
7. Comb., as † quartern-book (see 4); quartern-loaf, a loaf made of a quartern of flour, a four-pound loaf; † quartern-wind, a quarter-wind.
1592. Greene, Disput., 1. Thinke you a quarterne winde cannot make a quicke saile.
1812. Examiner, 23 Aug., 531/1. Bread.—The price of the Quartern Loaf still continues at 1s. 8d.
1887. Jessopp, Arcady, vi. 176, note. Ben has been seen to eat two quartern loaves at a sitting.
