[L.: ‘state in which.’ Cf. in statu quo (see IN Latin prep. 16).] The existing state of affairs.
1833. Edin. Rev., LVI. 436. The status quo was to be maintained in Luxemburg during negotiations respecting that duchy.
1853. Ld. J. Russell, Lett. to Ld. Cowley, 28 Jan., in H. Paul, Hist. Mod. Eng. (1904), I. xvii. 301. The Ambassador of France was the first to disturb the status quo.
1864. Spectator, 439. The country gentlemen can be satisfied with the status quo as a principle.
1877. L. W. M. Lockhart, Mine is Thine, xxxv. (1879), 300. His autumn plans were in the status quo ante.
1884. trans. Lotze’s Logic, 403. The desire to protect that particular status quo on principle against all innovation.
