quackery: (noun) the condition of being a quack; fake; a charlatan. When the doctor concluded
that Uncle Leo was turning into a duck, we all suspected quackery.
quaff: (verb) to drink a beverage heartily. Try as you might, but it’s really hard
to quaff cheap beer.
quagmire: (noun) swamp, bog, quandary, Afghanistan. Asking a crazy person out on a date
has been the beginning of many a quagmire.
quatch: (noun) a sound; (adj.) pudgy. Dig it! That cat
on the horn is laying down a fat sound. It's a quatch quatch.
quaver: (verb) to warble; shake; tremble. Lester was quavering
with excitement, having found a rare vocabulary word that started with the letter “Q.”
quay: (noun) (pronounced: key) a wharf; a platform alongside water for loading
and unloading vessels. We will go to sea from the quay.
quean: (noun) an impudent or ill-behaved girl or woman; a prostitute.
Sir Mallory’s mistake was common, mistaking the queen for a quean. Unfortunately, the queen was not amused.
querulous: (adj.) argumentive; cantankerous. The querulous
old man never figured out why everybody was content to let him die alone.
queue: (verb) to line up. On cue, the pool players all
queued to get their cues.
quibble: (verb) to equivocate; nitpick; cavil. When Mrs.
Martin brought out her ruler to measure our margins, we called her a quibbling pedantic, even though we knew it was redundant.
quiddity: (noun) the inherent nature of someone or something; one’s
essence. Because the yob’s quiddity was that of a ruffian, we shouldn’t’ve been surprised that she
took all our money.
quidnunc: (noun) busybody; somebody who always wants to know the latest gossip; Mrs. Kravitz. Oh, her. She's not a prowler. That's Gladys Kravitz, the neighborhood quidnunc.
quid pro quo: (noun) a favour or advantage expected in return for something.
My cat and I have a quid pro quo agreement: I do everything she wants, and she only slashes the furniture a lot.
quiescent: (adj.)
(pronounced: kwi-ess-sent) tranquilly at rest. Oh, no sir. I'm not loitering. I'm enjoying a
protracted period of quiescence.
quiff: (noun) hair, especially on a man, that is combed upward and backward from the forehead,
such as a pompadour; a sexually promiscuous woman. Ed hoped to attract a quiff with his quiff.
quintessence: (noun) the essence of something in its purest
form; epitome. Larry thought he was the quintessence of intelligence, but in reality he was the epitome of idiocy.
quirt: (noun) a short handled riding whip with a braided handle. If you hit me with that
quirt, it's going to hurt.
Quixotic: (adjective) a compulsive romantic; one who is like
Juan Quixote, and a great word for the triple point square in Scrabble. Lloyd thought of himself as Quixotic when he
quit his job and moved to Alberta to live with the person he just met on the Internet, but his friends just thought he was
an idiot.
quizzical: (adj.) puzzled; perplexed; surprised; curious. It is rather quizzical that one
would show affection for his child by hitting her.
quondam: (adj.) former; that which once was. I prefer to
call her my quondam wife, but only because I get to say "damn."
quotidian: (adv.) daily. A quotidian constitutional will put a skip in
the step, and a smile on the lip.
