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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Quarry


QUAR'RY, noun

1. A square; as a quarry of glass. [Not in use.]

2. An arrow with a square head. [See Quarrel. Not in use.]

3. In falconry, the game which a hawk is pursuing or has killed. [Perhaps from Latin quaero.]

4. Among hunters, a part of the entrails of the beast taken, given to the hounds.

QUAR'RY, noun [I know not whether the original sense of this word was a pit or mine, from digging, or whether the sense was a place for squaring stone. Latin curro. If the sense was a pit, it may be referred to the Heb.]

1. A place, cavern or pit where stones are dug from the earth, or separated from a large mass of rocks. We generally apply the word mine to the pit from which are taken metals and coal; from quarries are taken stones for building, as marble, freestone, slate, etc.

2. In Paris, the quarries are a vast cavern under the city, several miles in extent.

QUAR'RY, verb intransitive To prey upon, as a vulture or harpy. [A low word and not much used.]

QUAR'RY, verb transitive To dig or take from a quarry; as, to quarry marble.