Quaint

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Quaint \Quaint\, a. [OE. queint, queynte, coint, prudent, wise,
     cunning, pretty, odd, OF. cointe cultivated, amiable,
     agreeable, neat, fr. L. cognitus known, p. p. of cognoscere
     to know; con + noscere (for gnoscere) to know. See {Know},
     and cf. {Acquaint}, {Cognition}.]
     1. Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily. [Obs.]


        [1913 Webster]
  
              Clerks be full subtle and full quaint. --Chaucer.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Characterized by ingenuity or art; finely fashioned;
        skillfully wrought; elegant; graceful; nice; neat.
        [Archaic] " The queynte ring." " His queynte spear."
        --Chaucer. " A shepherd young quaint." --Chapman.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Every look was coy and wondrous quaint. --Spenser.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              To show bow quaint an orator you are. --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Curious and fanciful; affected; odd; whimsical; antique;
        archaic; singular; unusual; as, quaint architecture; a
        quaint expression.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Some stroke of quaint yet simple pleasantry.
                                                    --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              An old, long-faced, long-bodied servant in quaint
              livery.                               --W. Irving.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: {Quaint}, {Odd}, {Antique}.
  
     Usage: Antique is applied to that which has come down from
            the ancients, or which is made to imitate some ancient
            work of art. Odd implies disharmony, incongruity, or
            unevenness. An odd thing or person is an exception to
            general rules of calculation and procedure, or
            expectation and common experience. In the current use
            of quaint, the two ideas of odd and antique are
            combined, and the word is commonly applied to that
            which is pleasing by reason of both these qualities.
            Thus, we speak of the quaint architecture of many old
            buildings in London; or a quaint expression, uniting
            at once the antique and the fanciful.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  quaint
       adj 1: strange in an interesting or pleasing way; "quaint dialect
              words"; "quaint streets of New Orleans, that most
              foreign of American cities"
       2: very strange or unusual; odd or even incongruous in
          character or appearance; "the head terminating in the
          quaint duck bill which gives the animal its vernacular
          name"- Bill Beatty; "came forth a quaint and fearful
          sight"- Sir Walter Scott; "a quaint sense of humor"
       3: attractively old-fashioned (but not necessarily authentic);
          "houses with quaint thatched roofs"; "a vaulted roof
          supporting old-time chimney pots" [syn: {old-time}, {olde
          worlde}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  52 Moby Thesaurus words for "quaint":
     absurd, acquaint, amusing, antiquated, antique, archaic, bizarre,
     curious, droll, eccentric, fanciful, fantastic, freaked out,
     freaky, funny, hilarious, humorous, idiosyncratic, incongruous,
     kooky, laughable, ludicrous, odd, oddball, off, off the wall,
     offbeat, old-fashioned, out, outlandish, passing strange, peculiar,
     picturesque, present, priceless, queer, quizzical, rich,
     ridiculous, risible, screaming, singular, strange, uncommon,
     unconventional, unearthly, unorthodox, unusual, weird, whimsical,
     witty, wondrous strange