Word.ws English Dictionary

quainter

quainter is the comparative form of quaint.

Meaning of quaint

Adjective

quaint (comparative quainter, superlative quaintest)

  1. (obsolete) 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...
  2. (obsolete) 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...
  3. (dialectal) 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
  4. (obsolete) 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
  5. 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

See all 6 meanings of quaint

Questions about quainter

What is quainter the comparative form of?
Quainter is the comparative form of quaint.

Words near quainter in the dictionary

  1. Quain
  2. quaint
  3. quaintance
  4. quaintances
  5. quainted
  6. quainter
  7. quaintest
  8. quaintish
  9. quaintlike
  10. quaintly
  11. quaintness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quainter (page history and authors); quaint (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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Cite this entry: “quainter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quainter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.