Word.ws English Dictionary

to the quick

to the quick prepositional phrase: to the level of living tissue.

Prepositional phrase

  1. To the level of living tissue.
    • Blood dripped from every finger-end, while the nails were broken to the quick.1904, Jack London, chapter 39, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC
  2. Very deeply; at one's most sensitive level of feeling.
    • Titus, I have touched thee to the quick.c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • This false evidence . . . stung me to the quick, and raised an indignation scarce conceivable.1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 14, in Tom Jones, a Foundling

Questions about to the quick

What does to the quick mean?
To the quick means to the level of living tissue.
What part of speech is to the quick?
To the quick is a prepositional phrase.

Words near to the quick in the dictionary

  1. to the nth degree
  2. to the point
  3. to the power of
  4. to the prejudice of
  5. to the purpose
  6. to the quick
  7. to the rafters
  8. to the rescue
  9. to the T
  10. to the tee
  11. to the tonsils

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: to the quick (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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