1. A stout pole, from six to eight feet long and tipped with iron, formerly used as a weapon by the English peasantry.
The exact sense of quarter is not clear: quot. 1589 suggests that the staff may have been made from a tree of a certain size cleft in four; cf. QUARTER-CLEFT B. 1.
a. 1500. Play of Robin Hood, 7, in Child, Ballads, III. 127. With a stout frere I met, And a quarter-staffe in his hande.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1860), 3. Plodding through Aldersgate, all armed as I was, with a quarter Ashe staffe on my shoulder.
c. 1626. Dick of Devon, IV. iii. in Bullen, Old Pl., II. 81. My owne Country weapon. What? A Quarter staffe.
1700. Dryden, Cymon & Iphig., 82. His quarter-staff … Hung half before and half behind his back.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 121. A cane about eight foot long and an inch and a half in diameter much like a quarter-staff.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxv. Their rude drivers … began to debate precedence with their waggon-whips and quarter-staves.
1887. Besant, The World went, xv. 128. [He] took the quarterstaff,… poised it in his hands, and turned a smiling face to his adversary.
attrib. 1890. Daily News, 19 June, 6/4. Dumb-bell and quarter-staff drill.
2. Fighting or exercise with the quarterstaff.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, I. ii. He had acquir’d immense Riches, which he used to squander away at Back-Sword, Quarter-Staff, and Cudgell-Play.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, IV. i. If you wanted a bout at boxing, quarter staff, or short-staff.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ii. I. 252. He … wrestled, played at quarterstaff, and won footraces.
Hence Quarterstaff v., to beat with a quarterstaff.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 31, ¶ 5. 400 Senators … thought it an Honour to be cudgelled and quarterstaffed.
