 3 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
Quaker
noun
1: a member of the Religious Society of Friends founded by
George Fox (the Friends have never called themselves
Quakers) [syn: {Friend}]
2: one who quakes and trembles with (or as with) fear [syn: {trembler}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Quaker \Quak"er\, noun
1. One who quakes.
2. One of a religious sect founded by George {Fox}, of
Leicestershire, England, about 1650, -- the members of
which call themselves Friends. They were called Quakers,
originally, in derision. See {Friend}, noun, 4.
Fox's teaching was primarily a preaching of
repentance . . . The trembling among the listening
crowd caused or confirmed the name of Quakers given
to the body; men and women sometimes fell down and
lay struggling as if for life. --Encyc. Brit.
3. (Zo["o]l.)
(a) The nankeen bird.
(b) The sooty albatross.
(c) Any grasshopper or locust of the genus {Edipoda}; --
so called from the quaking noise made during flight.
{Quaker buttons}. (Bot.) See {Nux vomica}.
{Quaker gun}, a dummy cannon made of wood or other material;
-- so called because the sect of Friends, or Quakers, hold
to the doctrine, of nonresistance.
{Quaker ladies} (Bot.), a low American biennial plant
({Houstonia c[ae]rulea}), with pretty four-lobed corollas
which are pale blue with a yellowish center; -- also
called {bluets}, and {little innocents}.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Nankeen \Nan*keen"\, noun [So called from its being originally
manufactured at Nankin (Nanjing), in China.] [Written also
{nankin}.]
1. A species of cloth, of a firm texture, originally brought
from China, made of a species of cotton ({Gossypium
religiosum}) that is naturally of a brownish yellow color
quite indestructible and permanent.
2. An imitation of this cloth by artificial coloring.
3. pl. Trousers made of nankeen. --Ld. Lytton.
{Nankeen bird} (Zo["o]l.), the Australian night heron
({Nycticorax Caledonicus}); -- called also {quaker}.
|
