[f. prec. sb.]
1. a. trans. To assail with quirks or quips. b. intr. To use quirks or quips. Also with it.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, 41. Not so much to quirke or crosse me thereby, as to blesse himselfe. Ibid. (1599), Lenten Stuffe, Wks. 1883–4, V. 307. Wee shall haue some spawne of a goose-quill … quirking and girding.
1823. Blackw. Mag., XIII. 673. Merely quirking it upon the strength of a dozen or two hard words.
2. trans. To form or furnish with a quirk; to groove. Usually in pa. pple.
1842–59. Gwilt, Archit., § 2106. When a bead is stuck so that it does not on the section merely fall in with its square returns, but leaves a space … between the junctions at the sides, it is said to be quirked.
1886. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Quirk,… used by carpenters and stonemasons. To form a narrow groove, usually in a moulding.
3. To move in a sudden and jerky manner. [Perh an independent formation.]
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 33. We saw many a mouse Quirking round for the kernels. [See also QUIRKING ppl. a.]
1876. G. Meredith, Beauch. Career, xiv. That is the thing to set an audience bounding and quirking.
