Word.ws English Dictionary

quoin

/k(w)ɔɪn/

quoin noun: any of the corner building blocks of a building, usually larger or more ornate than the surrounding blocks.

quoin: any of the corner building blocks of a building, usually larger or more ornate than the surrounding...
Image: Medjaï, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

quoin (plural quoins)

  1. Any of the corner building blocks of a building, usually larger or more ornate than the surrounding blocks.
    • In Casterbridge there stood a noble pile, […]
      But evil days beset that domicile;
      The stately beauties of its roof and wall
      Passed into sordid hands. Condemned to fall
      Were cornice, quoin, and cove,
      And all that art had wove in antique style.1901, Thomas Hardy, A Man (In Memory Of H. Of M.)
    Synonyms:
    cornerstone
  2. The keystone of an arch.
  3. (historical) A metal wedge which fits into the space between the type and the edge of a chase, and is tightened to fix the metal type in place.
    • Next fit the quoins, using the “persuader” to squeeze in the pages, and tap up all around.1898, John Southward, Modern Printing: A Handbook of the Principles and Practice of Typography and the Auxiliary Arts
  4. (obsolete) A form of wedge used to prevent casks from moving.
  5. A wedge of wood or iron put under the breech of heavy guns or the muzzle of siege-mortars to raise them to the proper level.
  6. A number of apple varieties with a distinctive ribbed appearance, like corners of a coin.

Verb

quoin (third-person singular simple present quoins, present participle quoining, simple past and past participle quoined)

  1. (transitive) To wedge or steady with quoins.

quoin meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Kannada

quoin in Tamil

மூலைமடி

quoin in Urdu

ڈاٹ, گوشہ, کلیدی پتھر, کنج

quoin in Kannada

ಹೊರಮೂಲೆ, ಮೂಲೆಕಲ್ಲು

Synonyms of quoin

Forms of quoin

Noun
pluralquoins
Verb
third-person singular presentquoins
present participlequoining
past participlequoined
pastquoined

Origin of quoin

Variant of coin; compare coign.

Words formed from quoin

Phrases with quoin

Words that rhyme with quoin

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about quoin

What does quoin mean?
Quoin means any of the corner building blocks of a building, usually larger or more ornate than the surrounding blocks.
What is quoin in Tamil?
Quoin in Tamil is மூலைமடி. See Quoin meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is quoin?
Quoin can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce quoin?
Quoin is pronounced /k(w)ɔɪn/.
What is the plural of quoin?
The plural of quoin is quoins.

Words near quoin in the dictionary

  1. quoifs
  2. quoigenic
  3. quoil
  4. quoilers
  5. quoils
  6. quoin
  7. quoin post
  8. quoin posts
  9. quoin up
  10. quoined
  11. quoined up

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: quoin (page history and authors); quoin (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); quoin (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); quoin (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: en-us-coin.ogg.

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