Word.ws English Dictionary

quartation

quartation noun: the act, process, or result (in the process of parting) of alloying a button of nearly pure gold with enough silver to reduce the fineness so as to allow acids to attack and remove all metals except the gold.

Noun

quartation (usually uncountable, plural quartations)

  1. (archaic, usually) The act, process, or result (in the process of parting) of alloying a button of nearly pure gold with enough silver to reduce the fineness so as to allow acids to attack and remove all metals except the gold.
    Synonyms:
    inquartation

Synonyms of quartation

Forms of quartation

pluralquartations

Origin of quartation

Latin quartus, "fourth", because usually enough silver is added to make the amount of gold in the alloyed button about one fourth.

Questions about quartation

What does quartation mean?
Quartation means the act, process, or result (in the process of parting) of alloying a button of nearly pure gold with enough silver to reduce the fineness so as to allow acids to attack and remove all metals except the gold.
What part of speech is quartation?
Quartation is a noun.
What is the plural of quartation?
The plural of quartation is quartations.

Words near quartation in the dictionary

  1. quartaries
  2. quartarii
  3. quartarius
  4. quartariuses
  5. quartary
  6. quartation
  7. quartations
  8. quarte
  9. quarted
  10. quarteer
  11. quarteers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quartation (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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