quail
Word family nounquailquailing
quail1 /kweɪl/ noun [countableC, uncountableU] HBBa small fat bird with a short tail that is hunted for food or sport, or the meat from this bird 鹌鹑;鹌鹑肉 →4 See picture of 见图 quail quail2 verb [intransitiveI] literaryFRIGHTENED to be afraid and show it by shaking a little bit or moving back slightly 害怕;畏缩 SYN shrinkquail at She quailed visibly at the sight of the prison walls. 看到监狱的围墙,她显然胆怯了。
quail• For the first time I quailed...• I felt like Frankenstein, quailing before the monster I had created.• It would seem that even senior officers were quailing, but go they did.• Though he quailed inwardly, he managed not to flinch.• Even now there were times when Valerie quailed, when she felt crushed. Origin quail1 (1300-1400) Old French quaille, from Medieval Latin quaccula
quail2 (1400-1500) quail “to curdle” ((15-19 centuries)), from
Latin coagulare;
→ COAGULATE