quillet

UK/ˈkwɪlɪt/

quillet noun: a quibble, an evasive distinction.

Noun (1)

quillet (plural quillets)

A quibble, an evasive distinction.
- There’s another : why might not that bee the Scull of a Lawyer ? where be his Quiddits now ? his Quillets ? his Caſes ? his Tenures, and his Tricks ? why doe’s he ſuffer this rude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce with a dirty Shouell, and will not tell him of his Action of Battery ? hum.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Hence it comes that such a pack of vile buffoons [...] intrude with unwashed feet upon the sacred precinct of Theology, bringing with them nothing save brazen impudence, and some hackneyed quillets and scholastic trifles not good enough for a crowd at a street corner.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

quillet (plural quillets)

(regional) A small plot of land; historically: a strip of land that together with others like it formed a larger field.
- The single and only [Royal Wilding apple] tree from which the apple was first propagated is very tall, fair, and stout ; I believe it stands about twenty feet high. It stands in a very little quillet (as we call it) of gardening, adjoining to the post-road that leads from Exeter to Oakhampton, in...1908, Sabine Baring-Gould, “Hugh Stafford and the Royal Wilding”, in Devonshire Characters and Strange Events, London: John Lane, page 7
Synonyms:

croft

استدلال کی باریکی

plural	quillets

Uncertain. Possibly a shortening of earlier quillity, itself of uncertain origin, or from Latin quidlibet (“anything”).

Uncertain. Possibly from Anglo-Norman/Old French cueillette (“uncultivated strip of land for the gathering of herbs, berries, snails, etc.”).

What does quillet mean?: Quillet means a quibble, an evasive distinction.
What is quillet in Urdu?: Quillet in Urdu is استدلال کی باریکی. See Quillet meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is quillet?: Quillet is a noun.
How do you pronounce quillet?: Quillet is pronounced /ˈkwɪlɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of quillet?: The plural of quillet is quillets.

Adapted from Wiktionary: quillet (page history and authors); quillet (Urdu 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “quillet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quillet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.