Also 5–6 quyk-, 6 quyck, quyke-, 7 quic-, etc. [f. QUICK a. 3 + SET ppl. a. and sb.]
1. a. collect. Live slips or cuttings of plants, set in the ground to grow, esp. those of whitethorn or other shrub of which hedges are made.
1484. Rent roll St. Wolstan’s Hosp., Worcester (Bodleian Rolls, Worc. No. 1). Et soluti pro fodicione … cum Quyksette hoc anno—ijs. jd.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 51. Where speedy quickset for a fence ye wil drawe.
1607. J. Norden, Surv. Dial., V. 237. They plant them in hedges, and the quickset of them make a strong fence.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Agriculture, To make a Hedge and lay the Quickset, is three Pence a Pole.
1816. Southey, Ess. (1832), I. 206. He … inclosed the ground with a single row of quickset.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., v. To extricate their unfortunate companions from their bed or quickset.
fig. 1847–9. Helps, Friends in C., Ser. I. (1851), II. 4. Men would have one sturdy quickset of the same height and colour—both in their fellow-men and their hedges.
b. With a and pl. A single slip or cutting of this kind.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 124. Get thy quycksettes in the wode-contrey and let them be of whyte thorne and crabtre for they be beste; holy and hasell be good.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 530. When a quick-set of a vine is planted in a vineyard.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 266. Plant Timber-trees, or any Coppice-wood, or Hedge-wood; and also Quick-sets.
1794. Act for inclosing South Kelsey, 13. For preserving the young Quicksets to be planted in the Fences.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xviii. 428. Quicksets are also purchased, for the same purposes as those which are familiar to the modern agriculturist.
2. A quickset hedge or thicket.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 45. Learne soone to get A good quickset.
1634. Heywood & Brome, Lancash. Witches, IV. H.’s Wks. 1874, IV. 219. Theres a deepe ditch, & a hye quick-set about mee.
1680. Otway, Caius Marius, IV. i. A new Quick-set, which I had just made to keep the Swine from the Beans.
1768. Pennant, Brit. Zool., II. 338. They generally chuse a quickset to make their nest in.
1896. B. E. J. Capes, in Cornh. Mag., Dec., 799. We strode with difficulty, in an inhuman twilight, through this great dark quickset of nature.
transf. 1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. vii. § 7. The haires of the Eye-liddes are for a quic-sette and fence about the Sight.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, IV. ii. § 34. Esau, who Satyr-like had a quickset of hair on his body.
B. adj. (or attrib.) Of a hedge: Formed of living plants. So also with fence, rank, row, screen, etc. Cf. QUICK a. 3 b.
1535. Nottingham Rec., III. 374. For cuttyng up the quyke set hege.
1597–8. Bp. Hall, Sat., V. i. As thicke as wealthy Scrobioes quicke-set rowes. Ibid., iii. Beset around with treble quickset ranks.
1644. in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. II. 743. Between the Pallisado’s and the quick-set Hedge.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), IV. 10. An hare, sorely hunted, has got upon the top of a cut quick-set hedge.
1819. Shelley, Peter Bell 3rd, V. xi. Many a ditch and quickset fence.
1875. W. S. Hayward, Love agst. World, 11. They approached the first hedge, a pretty stiff quickset one.
transf. and fig. 1632. Heywood, 2nd Pt. Iron Age, II. Wks. 1874, III. 382. Are we not rounded with a quick-set hedge Of pointed steele?
1652. Sterry, Eng. Deliv. North. Presb., 7. Enclosed with the Quick-set hedge of his Divine Wisdome.
1816. Coleridge, Statesm. Man. (1817), 356. Aristotle’s works a quickset hedge of fruitless and thorny distinctions!
b. transf. Of a beard: Rough, bristling.
1599. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., V. viii. Hang him rascall … with his wilde quickset beard there.
