quartering

Plural: quarterings

Noun

• a coat of arms that occupies one quarter of an escutcheon; combining four coats of arms on one shield usually represented intermarriages
• living accommodations (especially those assigned to military personnel)
• dividing into four equal parts
• A division into four parts.
• The act of providing housing for military personnel, especially when imposed upon the home of a private citizen.
• The method of capital punishment where a criminal is cut into four pieces.
• The division of a shield containing different coats of arms into four or more compartments.
• One of the different coats of arms arranged upon an escutcheon, denoting the descent of the bearer.
• A series of quarters, or small upright posts.
• The practice of docking 15 minutes' pay from a worker who arrived late (even by less than 15 minutes).
• 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.
• 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.

Verb

• provide housing for (military personnel)
• pull (a person) apart with four horses tied to his extremities, so as to execute him
• divide into quarters
• divide by four; divide into quarters
• present participle and gerund of quarter

Adj

• Coming from a point well abaft the beam, but not directly astern; said of waves or any moving object.
• Coming from aft and to one side; having both a crosswind and tailwind component.
• At right angles, as the cranks of a locomotive, which are in planes forming a right angle with each other.

Synonyms

billet, canton, draw, draw and quarter, quarter

Anagrams of quartering