Meaning & use
quat
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Meanings
nouncountablearchaicdialect
A small pimple or hard swelling on the skin.
Grammar: An old word, found only in dialect or older texts.
Patterns
- a quat on the face
The old herbal book advised a poultice for a stubborn quat.
He had a red quat on his chin that he kept touching.
In the dialect of that region, a quat was a small boil.
nouncountablearchaicdisapproving
A worthless or contemptible person.
Grammar: Appears as an insult in older literature; not used in modern speech.
Patterns
- a quat of a fellow
In the old play, a character calls his rival a quat.
The scholar noted that quat was used as an insult in Elizabethan English.
Editors add a footnote to explain the word quat to modern readers.
Word forms
| plural | quats |
|---|
Common combinations
- a small quat
- The surgeon removed a small quat from his shoulder.
- call someone a quat
- In the play, he calls his rival a quat.
- quat of a fellow
- A quat of a fellow was no use in a fight.
Synonyms and how they differ
- pimple
- Pimple is the everyday word for a small skin blemish, whereas quat is archaic and dialect.
- pustule
- Pustule is a medical term for a pus-filled bump, more clinical than quat.
- knave
- Knave is an old word for a rascal, and is more widely known than quat.
Word family
- quatty adjective
- rare; describing something covered in quats
Commonly confused: quat or quad? quat or quit?
quat vs quad
Quad is short for quadrangle or quadruple, with no link to skin or insults.
quat vs quit
Quit means to stop or leave and is a common verb, unlike the rare noun quat.
Practice
In an Elizabethan play, a character calls another a quat. What does he most likely mean?
Choose one answer.
Quat can be an insult for a contemptible person. The other options describe respected people and would not be insults.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “quat”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.