quaint

adjective

1. 1

   obsoleteOf a person: cunning, crafty.

   But you, my Lord, were glad to be imploy'd, / To shew how queint an Orator you are.

2. 2

   obsoleteCleverly made; artfully contrived.

   describe races and games, / Or tilting furniture, imblazon'd shields, / Impresses quaint, caparisons and steeds, / Bases and tinsel trappings […].

3. 3

   Strange or odd; unusual.

   Till that there entered on the other side / A straunger knight, from whence no man could reed, / In quyent disguise, full hard to be descride […].

   Lord Gifford, deep beneath the ground, / Heard Alexander's bugle sound, / And tarried not his garb to change, / But, in his wizard habit strange, / Came forth, a quaint and fearful sight; [...]

   What none would dispute though many smiled over was the good-humored, necessary, yet quaint omission of the writer's name from the whole consideration.

4. 4

   obsoleteOverly discriminating or needlessly meticulous; fastidious; prim.

   She, nothing quaint / Nor 'sdeignfull of so homely fashion, / Sith brought she was now to so hard constraint, / Sate downe upon the dusty ground anon […].

5. 5

   Pleasingly unusual; especially, having old-fashioned charm.

   I admire all that quaint, old-fashioned politeness; it is much more to my taste than modern ease; modern ease often disgusts me.

   If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air, / Quaint little villages here and there, / You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod.

   The rock is a haven for rare wildlife, a landscape where pretty hedgerows and quaint villages are bordered by a breathtaking, craggy coastline.

noun

1. 1

   historicalThe vulva.

   The rest looked on, horrified, as Clarice trussed up her habit and in open view placed her hand within her queynte[,] crying, ‘The first house of Sunday belongs to the sun, and the second to Venus.’

Forms

plural

quaints

comparative

quainter

superlative

quaintest