QUEEN, n.
A woman by whom the realm is ruled when there is a king, and
through whom it is ruled when there is not.
QUILL, n.
An implement of torture yielded by a goose and commonly wielded
by an ass. This use of the quill is now obsolete, but its modern
equivalent, the steel pen, is wielded by the same everlasting
Presence.
QUIVER, n.
A portable sheath in which the ancient statesman and the
aboriginal lawyer carried their lighter arguments.
QUIXOTIC adj.
Absurdly chivalric, like Don Quixote. An insight into the beauty
and excellence of this incomparable adjective is unhappily denied
to him who has the misfortune to know that the gentleman's name
is pronounced Ke- ho-tay.
QUORUM, n.
A sufficient number of members of a deliberative body to have
their own way and their own way of having it. In the United
States Senate a quorum consists of the chairman of the Committee
on Finance and a messenger from the White House; in the House of
Representatives, of the Speaker and the devil.
QUOTATION, n.
The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words
erroneously repeated.
QUOTIENT, n.
A number showing how many times a sum of money belonging to one
person is contained in the pocket of another-- usually about as
many times as it can be got there.