verb. (Winchester College).—To curry favour; hence, TO BE QUILLED = to be pleased; QUILLER (or QUILSTER) = a toady (Fr. suceur): cf. SUCKER.

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  PHRASES.—UNDER THE QUILL = under discussion: spec. in writing; TO CARRY A GOOD QUILL = to write well; IN A QUILL = in a push; TO PISS IN A QUILL (Irish proverb: ‘They pissed IN THE SAME QUILL’) = to be agreed to act as one; TO PISS THROUGH A QUILL = to write.

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  1594.  SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry VI., i. 3, 1. My masters let’s stand close; my lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we may deliver our supplications IN THE QUILL.

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  1740.  R. NORTH, Examen, 70. So strangely did Papist and Fanatic or … the Anti-court Party PISS IN A QUILL; agreeing in all things that tended to create troubles and disturbances.

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  d. 1678.  MARVELL, Poems [MURRAY], 188.

        I’ll have a council shall sit always still,
And give me a license to do what I will;
And two secretaries shall PISS THRO’ A QUILL.

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  1692.  J. HACKET, Life of Archbishop Williams, ii. 28. The subject which is now UNDER THE QUILL is the Bishop of Lincoln.

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