subs. (old legal: now recognised).—An evasion; a shift; a QUIP (q.v.). Hence QUIRKIST = shifty; quibbling (B. E., c. 1696); QUIRKS AND QUILLETTS = tricks and devices; QUIRKLUM (JAMIESON: ‘a cant term’) = a puzzle; QUIRKY = sportively tricky.
1538–50. [ELLIS, Original Letters]. [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 508. There is the Celtic QUIRK, connected with law.]
1600. SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 3. Some odd QUIRKS and remnants of wit. Ibid. (1609), Pericles, iv. 6. She has me her QUIRKS, her reasons.
1828. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Living Picture of London, 251. Hear them laying QUIRKISH bets that are to take in the unwary.
