[f. the vb.]
1. Mus. A note, equal in length to half a crotchet or one-eighth of a semibreve.
1570. Levins, Manip., 76/18. A Quauer, octaua pars mensuræ.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., Annot., Who inuented the Crotchet, Quauer and Semiquauer is vncertaine.
1659. Leak, Water-works, 31. Demi-crochets or Quavers, whereof there are sixteen in one measure.
1706. A. Bedford, Temple Mus., viii. 165. The greatest Part … is sung in Short Notes … and are Prickt with Quavers.
1789. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., II. (1791), 60. And then the third on four concordant lines, Prints the lone crotchet, and the quaver joins.
1866. Engel, Nat. Mus., iii. 90. A slight alteration of the melody … such as a substitution of two quavers for a crotchet.
fig. a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. xii. § 1 (1622), 327. I will not strictly examine euery crochet and quauer.
2. Mus. A shake or trill in singing.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 27. I heard a certaine French man who sung very melodiously with curious quauers.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 29, ¶ 11. A Voice so full of Shakes and Quavers, that I should have thought the Murmurs of a Country Brook the much more agreeable Musick.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 443. The people … attend solely to their quavers, without heeding the substance of what they sing.
1817. Byron, Beppo, ii. There are songs and quavers, roaring, humming.
1883. Stevenson, Treas. Isl., V. xxiii. A … sailor’s song, with a droop and a quaver at the end of every verse.
b. in instrumental music. rare.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, II. xxxvii. 234. Unlike a quaver on an Instrument, it is not there a grace, but a jar in Music.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 361, ¶ 6. Whether we consider the Instrument [the Cat-call] itself, or those several Quavers and Graces which are thrown into the playing of it.
3. A shake or tremble in the voice; a tremulous voice or cry.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), III. xiii. 86. [She] drew a sigh into two or three but just audible quavers.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Tale of Tyne, iii. 53. There was … a quaver of the voice which belied what he said.
1882. Stevenson, New Arab. Nts. (1884), 63. Silas, with a quaver, admitted that he had done so.
4. A quivering or tremulous movement. Also fig.
1736. H. Brooke, Univ. Beauty, V. 136. Tissu’d wing its folded membrane frees, And with blithe quavers fans the gath’ring breeze.
1881. Stevenson, Virg. Puerisque, Eng. Admirals, 208. The worth of such actions is not a thing to be decided in a quaver of sensibility.
