Word.ws English Dictionary

quirt

/kwɜːt/US/kwɚt/

quirt noun: a rawhide whip plaited with two thongs of buffalo hide.

quirt: a rawhide whip plaited with two thongs of buffalo hide
Image: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

quirt (plural quirts)

  1. A rawhide whip plaited with two thongs of buffalo hide.
    • He sprang into the saddle easily as a bird, got the quirt from the horn, and gave his pony a slash with it.1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 177, column 2
    • He paused a moment and flicked a sage-brush with his quirt.1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 3, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC

Verb

quirt (third-person singular simple present quirts, present participle quirting, simple past and past participle quirted)

  1. To strike with a quirt.
    Synonyms:
    whip

quirt meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Kannada

quirt in Tamil

கையெழுத்து வல்லோன், கசை

quirt in Urdu

چابک

quirt in Kannada

ಬಾರುಗೋಲು, ಚಾಟಿ

Examples of quirt in a sentence

  • […] when the young man whirled his horse, “hazed” Jupiter in circles and belaboured him with a rawhide quirt, […] He ceased his cavortings […]1920, Peter B. Kyne, chapter I, in The Understanding Heart:
  • No gunshot wounds, Barricune observed, but marks of kicks, and couple that must have been made with a quirt.1949, Dorothy M. Johnson, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 92:
  • She raised the handle of her beautiful quirt to her eyes and scanned the Western horizon.1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin, published 2001, page 96:

Synonyms of quirt

Forms of quirt

Noun
pluralquirts
Verb
third-person singular presentquirts
present participlequirting
past participlequirted
pastquirted

Origin of quirt

From Spanish cuerda (“cord”), or Mexican Spanish cuarta (“whip”).

Words that rhyme with quirt

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about quirt

What does quirt mean?
Quirt means a rawhide whip plaited with two thongs of buffalo hide.
What is quirt in Tamil?
Quirt in Tamil is கையெழுத்து வல்லோன், கசை. See Quirt meaning in Tamil.
How do you use quirt in a sentence?
[…] when the young man whirled his horse, “hazed” Jupiter in circles and belaboured him with a rawhide quirt, […] He ceased his cavortings […]
What part of speech is quirt?
Quirt can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce quirt?
Quirt is pronounced /kwɜːt/ (UK).
What is the plural of quirt?
The plural of quirt is quirts.

Words near quirt in the dictionary

  1. quirpeles
  2. quirquincho
  3. quirquinchos
  4. quirrister
  5. quirristers
  6. quirt
  7. quirted
  8. quirting
  9. quirts
  10. quis-quis
  11. quisbies

Source and license

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

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-quirt.wav.

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