[QUARTER sb. 8 a.] One of the four days fixed by custom as marking off the quarters of the year, on which tenancy of houses usually begins and ends, and the payment of rent and other quarterly charges falls due.
In England and Ireland the quarter-days are Lady Day (March 25), Midsummer Day (June 24), Michaelmas (Sept. 29), and Christmas (Dec. 25). The name is also sometimes applied to the Scottish terms of Candlemas (Feb. 2), Whitsunday (May 15), Lammas (Aug. 1), and Martinmas (Nov. 11).
1480. in Eng. Gilds, 315. Ther shall be iiij quarter dayys that euery Brother … shall assemble at oure comen hall.
1566. Haryngton, in Leisure H. (1884), 630/2. All which sommes shal be duly paide each quarter-day.
1596. Edward III., III. ii. What, is it quarter-day, that you remove, And carry bag and baggage too?
1660. Fuller, Mixt Contempl. (1841), 197. A gentleman had two tenants, whereof one,… repaired to his landlord on the quarter-day.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 124. Rent … for the occupation of the land since the last quarter day.
1805. Southey, Ball. & Metr. T., Poet. Wks. VI. 80. I was idle, and quarter-day came on, And I had not the rent in store.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xiii. The twenty-fifth of March,… one of those unpleasant epochs termed quarter-days.
fig. 1641. Brome, Joviall Crew, II. Wks. 1873, III. 382. If ever any just or charitable Steward was commended, sure thou shalt be at the last Quarter-day.
1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., ii. (1876), 174. [They] had … a happy quarter-day coming round for them.
