quaint
/kweɪnt/
quaint adjective: of a person: cunning, crafty.
Adjective
quaint (comparative quainter, superlative quaintest)
- Of a person: cunning, crafty.
- But you, my Lord, were glad to be imploy'd, / To shew how queint an Orator you are.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Cleverly made; artfully contrived.
- describe races and games, / Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, / Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, / Bases and tinsel trappings […].1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Strange or odd; unusual.
- Till that there entered on the other side / A straunger knight, from whence no man could reed, / In quyent disguise, full hard to be descride […].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- Lord Gifford, deep beneath the ground, / Heard Alexander's bugle sound, / And tarried not his garb to change, / But, in his wizard habit strange, / Came forth, a quaint and fearful sight; [...]1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Third. The Hostel, or Inn.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London...
- Overly discriminating or needlessly meticulous; fastidious; prim.
- She, nothing quaint / Nor 'sdeignfull of so homely fashion, / Sith brought she was now to so hard constraint, / Sate downe upon the dusty ground anon […].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- Pleasingly unusual; especially, having old-fashioned charm.
- I admire all that quaint, old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; modern ease often disgusts me.1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC
- If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air, / Quaint little villages here and there, / You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.1957, Claire Rothrock, Milton Yakus, Allan Jeffrey, “Old Cape Cod”, performed by Patti Page
Noun
quaint (plural quaints)
- The vulva.
- The rest looked on, horrified, as Clarice trussed up her habit and in open view placed her hand within her queynte[,] crying, ‘The first house of Sunday belongs to the sun, and the second to Venus.’2003, Peter Ackroyd, The Clerkenwell Tales, page 9
quaint meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
quaint in Tamil
- பழமை நலங்கனிந்த, இனிய முரண்பாடுடைய, பழமைக் கவர்ச்சியார்ந்த
quaint in Urdu
- غیرمعمولی, خوش کن, من موجی, شیخ چلی
quaint in Bengali
- অদ্ভুত কিন্তু আকর্ষণীয়, প্রাচীন আমলের
quaint in Malayalam
- ആകർഷകമാംവിധം അസാധാരണമായ, കൗതുകകാരിയായ, സൂക്ഷ്മതയുള്ള
More languagesFewer languages
- quaint in Kannada
- ವಿಲಕ್ಷಣವೆನಿಸುವ, ವಿಲಕ್ಷಣವಾದ, ವಿಚಿತ್ರವಾದ, ಎಲ್ಲರಂತಿಲ್ಲದ
Examples of quaint in a sentence
- What none would dispute though many smiled over was the good-humored, necessary, yet quaint omission of the writer's name from the whole consideration.1924 November 17, Time:
- The rock is a haven for rare wildlife, a landscape where pretty hedgerows and quaint villages are bordered by a breathtaking, craggy coastline.2011 January 31, Ian Sample, The Guardian:
Forms of quaint
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | quainter |
| superlative | quaintest |
| Noun | |
| plural | quaints |
Origin of quaint
From Middle English queynte, quoynte, from Anglo-Norman cointe, queinte and Old French cointe (“pretty, clever, knowing”), from Latin cognitus, past participle of cognōscō (“to know”).
Words formed from quaint
- quaintish
- quaintlike
- quaintly
- quaintness
- quaintsome
- unquaint
Words that rhyme with quaint
Questions about quaint
- What does quaint mean?
- Quaint means of a person: cunning, crafty.
- What is quaint in Tamil?
- Quaint in Tamil is பழமை நலங்கனிந்த, இனிய முரண்பாடுடைய, பழமைக் கவர்ச்சியார்ந்த. See Quaint meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use quaint in a sentence?
- What none would dispute though many smiled over was the good-humored, necessary, yet quaint omission of the writer's name from the whole consideration.
- What part of speech is quaint?
- Quaint can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce quaint?
- Quaint is pronounced /kweɪnt/.
Words near quaint in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: quaint (page history and authors); quaint (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); quaint (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); quaint (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); quaint (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); quaint (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-quaint.ogg.
Cite this entry: “quaint.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quaint. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.