Obs. exc. dial. Also 6–7 quarre, 7 quarr, 8 quaar. [Abbrev. of QUARRY sb.2; still current in W. Midland and S. W. dialects.] A stone-quarry.
a. 1485. Promp. Parv., 419/1. Quarere (S. quar), lapidicina.
1529. Rastell, Pastyme, Hist. Brit. (1811), 105. Stonys owte of anny quarre, or rokk.
1566. T. Stapleton, Ret. Untr. Jewel, IV. 61. Stedfaster than any Rocke or Quarre of what euer stone it be.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxvi. (1748), 372. She mill-stones from the quarr with sharpen’d picks could get.
1672. W. S., Poems B. Johnson Jr., To Ld. Aston. Aston, a Stone cut from the marble Quar.
a. 1800. Song, in Glouc. Gloss. (1890), 203. The stwons that built George Ridler’s Oven … keum from the Bleakeney’s Quaar.
b. attrib. and Comb., as quarman, -pit; quar-martin, the sand-martin. dial.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. II. (Magnificence), 1110. The sturdy Quar-man with steel-headed Cones And massie Sledges slenteth out the stones.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 169. These birds are called by the labourers ‘quar-martins,’ because they breed in holes drilled in the face of the sandy precipices of quarries.
1886. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk., Quar-man, labourer in a quarry; also the proprietor or lessee of a quarry. Quar-pit, a quarry, usually a small one.
