quail

/kweɪl/

/kweɪl/

Other forms: quailed; quails; quailing

Smaller than the chicken and not as well known as the pigeon, quail is like the often-overlooked middle child of the ground-dwelling bird family. Quail can also mean to cringe in fear or pain. So if you are a quail, you might quail at the thought of quail-hunting season.

Quail is a broad, catchall word; it can refer to any one of many small domestic game birds. So if you’re bragging about the quail you shot on a hunting trip to your uptight, bird-obsessed pals, they might demand to know if it was the Bobwhite quail, the Valley quail or the Scaled quail, to name just a few. If you use this word as a verb, it means to draw back in fear or pain. You might quail in fear at the sight of a playground bully. A good way to remember this verb meaning is to think of how the word chicken is also associated with fear.

Definitions of quail

1. noun

   small gallinaceous game birds
   types:

   bobwhite, bobwhite quail, partridge

   a popular North American game bird; named for its call

   Old World quail

   small game bird with a rounded body and small tail

   California quail, Lofortyx californicus

   plump chunky bird of coastal California and Oregon

   Colinus virginianus, northern bobwhite

   a favorite game bird of eastern and central United States

   Coturnix communis, Coturnix coturnix, migratory quail

   the typical Old World quail

   type of:

   phasianid

   a kind of game bird in the family Phasianidae
2. noun

   flesh of quail; suitable for roasting or broiling if young; otherwise must be braised
   type of:

   wildfowl

   flesh of any of a number of wild game birds suitable for food
3. verb

   draw back, as with fear or pain
   synonyms: cringe, flinch, funk, recoil, shrink, squinch, wince

   types:

   retract, shrink back

   pull away from a source of disgust or fear

   type of:

   move

   move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion