Sc. and north. dial. Also north. whick-, wicken. [f. QUICK sb.2, the northern form of QUITCH.] Couch-grass; also pl. the underground stems of this and other grasses.
1684. Meriton, Yorksh. Dial., 41. Our Land is tewgh, and full of strang whickens.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxxv. The plant Quicken, by which, Scottice, we understand couch-grass, dog-grass, or the Triticum repens of Linnæus.
1842. J. Aiton, Domest. Econ. (1857), 173. Quickens, docks, thistles,… furze, broom.
1898. J. R. Campbell, in Trans. Highl. & Agric. Soc., 85. Quickens are in reality underground stems. Unlike roots they are jointed…. Quickens are not confined to one species of grass.
b. attrib. and Comb., as quicken-grass, -producer, quickens-scutch.
1843. Hardy, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 11. 63, note. Loosening and breaking the roots of the quicken-grass.
1858. R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, lxv. 295. The rushes of one field and the whicken grass of the other.
1898. J. R. Campbell, in Trans. Highl. & Agric. Soc., 85. The grass that is best known to farmers as a quicken-producer is couch-grass. Ibid., 88. It is a common belief that fibrous root-scutch belongs to Agrostis, and that quickens-scutch belongs to couch-grass.
