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 1901. Clement Scott [in Free Lance, 19 Oct., 94, 1.] What am I to do with the whisky? It may do me good, but, on the other hand, it may give me an everlasting headache, or my quietus.

Quiff, subs. (general).—A satisfactory result: spec. an end obtained by means not strictly conventional. As verb. = to do well; to jog along merrily. Also (tailors') to quiff in the press = to change a breast pocket from one side to the other; to quiff the bladder = to conceal baldness: cf. quiff (military) = a small flat curl on the temple.

Verb. (venery).—To copulate: see Ride.—Grose (1785).

c.1709. Old Ballad [Durfey, Pills (1709), iv. 18]. By quiffing with Cullies three Pound she had got.

Qui-Hi, subs. phr. (Anglo-Indian).—An English resident or official in Bengal.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, lxii. The old boys, the old generals, the old colonels, the old qui-his came and paid her homage.

Quill, verb. (Winchester College).—To curry favour; hence, to be quilled = to be pleased; quiller (or quilster) = a toady (Fr. suceur): cf. sucker.

Phrases.—Under the quill = under discussion: spec. in writing; to carry a good quill = to write well; in a quill = in a push; to piss in a quill (Irish proverb: 'They pissed in the same quill') = to be agreed to act as one; to piss through a quill = to write.

1594. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. VI., i. 3, 1. My masters let's stand close; my lord protector will come this way by and by, and then we may deliver our supplications in the quill.

1740. North, Examen, 70. So strangely did Papist and Fanatic or the Anti-court Party piss in a quill; agreeing in all things that tended to create troubles and disturbances.

d.1678. Marvell, Poems [Murray], 188. I'll have a council shall sit always still, And give me a license to do what I will; and two secretaries shall piss through a quill.

1692. Hacket, Life of Williams, ii. 28. The subject which is now under the quill is the Bishop of Lincoln.

Quill-driver (-man, -monger,-merchant; Brother, or Knight of the Quill), subs. phr. (common).—A penman—author, journalist, clerk, or (racing) bookmaker: Fr. rond de cuir. Also hero of the quill = a distinguished author. Hence quill-driving = clerking; to drive the quill = to write.—Grose (1785).

1680. Observ. 'Curse ye Meroz,' 7. This Aphorism is but borrowed from another Brother of the Quill.

1691-2. Gent. Jrnl., 2 Mar. I know some of your sturdy tuff Knights of the Quill, your old Soakers at the Cabbaline Font.

1719. Durfey, Pills, &c., iv. 319. When Inns of Court Rakes, And Quill-driving Prigs.

d.1745. Swift, Epil. to Play for Benefit of Irish Weavers [Davies]. Their brother quill-men, workers for the stage, For sorry stuffe can get a crown a page.

1761. Murphy, The Citizen, 'Dram. Pers.' Quildrive, clerk to old Philpot.

1827. Lytton, Pelham, xlix. Tolerably well known, I imagine, to the gentlemen of the quill.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, vii. A dozen clerks were quill-driving. Ibid., Cruise of the Midge, 3. I had much greater license allowed me than any of my fellow quill-drivers.

1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xii. Some sort of slave's quill-driving.

1885. Weekly Echo, 5 Sep. This most eccentric of quill-drivers gets up his facts in a slap-dash fashion.