quartering

English

Engraving of the bodies of Counts Struensee (1737–1772) and Brandt (1738–1772) on wheels after they were quartered for lèse majesté in Denmark.

An example of the quartering of two coats of arms in heraldry.

Etymology

By surface analysis, quarter +‎ -ing.

Verb

quartering

1. present participle and gerund of quarter

Noun

quartering (plural quarterings)

1. A division into four parts.
   • 1994, David C. Schneider, Quantitative Ecology: Spatial and Temporal Scaling, page 36:

     Similitude applies to proportional changes, such as doublings, halvings, or quarterings; it does not apply to additive changes.

2. The act of providing housing for military personnel, especially when imposed upon the home of a private citizen.
3. The method of capital punishment where a criminal is cut into four pieces.
4. (heraldry) The division of a shield containing different coats of arms into four or more compartments.
5. (heraldry) One of the different coats of arms arranged upon an escutcheon, denoting the descent of the bearer.
6. (architecture) A series of quarters, or small upright posts.
7. (historical) The practice of docking 15 minutes' pay from a worker who arrived late (even by less than 15 minutes).
8. (hunting) Searching for prey by traversing a space. From hunting for game, where dogs will run parallel to the wind in search of a scent, thereby 'quatering' the field.
9. A point on an arch calculated by measuring one quarter of the height along a line from the peak to the outer edge on the ground.
   • 1941 February, “Bridge demolition by lifting”, in Railway Magazine, page 74:

     The arch failed first at the crown, then at the quarterings, and finally at the springings.

Derived terms

• quartering block

Translations

method of capital punishment

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 車裂 / 车裂 (zh) (chēliè), 五馬分屍 / 五马分尸 (zh) (wǔmǎfēnshī)

• Dutch: vierendeling f
• Finnish: paloittelu (fi)
• French: écartèlement (fr)
• German: Vierteilung (de) f
• Greek: τεταρτιασμός (el) m (tetartiasmós)
• Italian: squartamento m
• Polish: ćwiartowanie (pl) n
• Russian: четвертова́ние (ru) n (četvertovánije)

Adjective

quartering (not comparable)

1. (nautical) Coming from a point well abaft the beam, but not directly astern; said of waves or any moving object.
   • 2015 November, Duncan Bruce, Tanker Jetty Safety – Management of the Ship/Shore Interface‎^[1], 1st edition, Witherby Seamanship International, →ISBN, 3.1.2:

     Wave direction and frequency (period) are two factors that influence the effect of waves on a moored ship. Whether the ship responds by surging, swaying or yawing will depend on whether the waves are striking the moored vessel head-on, beam-on or quartering, the frequency of the waves and the manner in which the tanker is moored.

2. (by extension, aviation, of wind) Coming from aft and to one side; having both a crosswind and tailwind component.
3. (engineering) At right angles, as the cranks of a locomotive, which are in planes forming a right angle with each other.

Derived terms

• quartering sea

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “quartering”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)