subs. (old).—1. A member of the Society of Friends. Like PURITAN (q.v.), which was ultimately accepted, Quaker originated in contempt, but it has never been accepted by the Society. Whence also QUAKERDOM = the world of Quakers; QUAKERISH = prim, demure, and so forth.
1664. BUTLER, Hudibras, II., ii., 219.
| QUAKERS (that, like to lanterns, bear | |
| Their light within ’em,) will not swear. |
1677. PENN, Journal of His Travels in Holland and Germany, ii. A certain minister in Bremen, who is even by his fellow-ministers and Protestants reproached with the name of QUAKER, because of his singular sharpness against the formal, lifeless ministers and Christians in the world.
1847. C. BRONTË, Jane Eyre, xxiv. Don’t address me as if I were a beauty: I am your plain, QUAKERISH governess.
1876. G. ELIOT, Daniel Deronda, xviii. Her rippling hair, covered by a QUAKERISH net-cap, was chiefly grey.
2. (old).—A rope or pile of excrement; a TURD (q.v.), Fr. rondin and sentinelle. Hence TO BURY A QUAKER = to ease the bowels; and QUAKER’S BURYING-GROUND = a jakes: see MRS. JONES.
3. (naval and military).—See quot. 1882: also QUAKER-GUN.
1840. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, xxvii. A Russian government barque, from Asitka, mounting eight guns (four of which we found to be QUAKERS).
1862. New York Tribune, May. The … impregnability of the position turns out to be a sham … QUAKERS were mounted on the bulwarks.
1882. Daily Telegraph, 30 Dec., 6, 1. Gangways and quarter-decks bristling with guns and lower portholes rendered formidable to the eye by those sham wooden pieces called QUAKERS, because they were never fought.
STEWED-QUAKER, subs. phr. (American colloquial).—A remedy for colds: composed of vinegar and molasses (or honey), mixed with butter and drunk hot.
