Quaint
[kweɪnt] or [kwent]
Definition
(adj.) strange in an interesting or pleasing way; 'quaint dialect words'; 'quaint streets of New Orleans, that most foreign of American cities' .
(adj.) very strange or unusual; odd or even incongruous in character or appearance; 'the head terminating in the quaint duck bill which gives the animal its vernacular name'- Bill Beatty; 'came forth a quaint and fearful sight'- Sir Walter Scott; 'a quaint sense of humor' .
Inputed by Bella--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Prudent; wise; hence, crafty; artful; wily.
(a.) Characterized by ingenuity or art; finely fashioned; skillfully wrought; elegant; graceful; nice; neat.
(a.) Curious and fanciful; affected; odd; whimsical; antique; archaic; singular; unusual; as, quaint architecture; a quaint expression.
Checker: Luther
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Odd, strange, singular, whimsical, unusual, uncommon, extraordinary, unique, curious, droll, fantastic, fanciful, far-fetched, out of the way.
Typed by Anatole
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Curious, recondite, abstruse, elegant, nice, affected, whimsical, odd, antique,archaic, fanciful, singular, old-fashioned
ANT:Commonplace, ordinary, usual, coarse, common, modern, modish, fashionable,dowdy
Typed by Gilda
Definition
adj. unusual: odd: whimsical: (obs.) prim affectedly nice: fine: (Shak.) clever.—adv. Quaint′ly.—n. Quaint′ness.
Checked by Dale
Examples
- Walk in, Mr. Franklin, he said, opening the door behind him, with his quaint old-fashioned bow. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- His long luxuriant hair was trained to flow in quaint tresses down his richly furred cloak. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- The fourth side was the house, a quaint, low-roofed, old-fashioned place, with deep diamond-paned lattices, and stacks of curiously-twisted chimneys. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Yielding, therefore, the chair at the bedside to the quaint old housekeeper, Volumnia sits at a table a little removed, sympathetically sighing. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Eustacia, though living within two miles of the place, had never seen the interior of this quaint old habitation. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- It's a quaint place, and they are quaint company, and it's quite a new sensation to mix with them. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- At short intervals along the Spanish shore were quaint-looking old stone towers--Moorish, we thought--but learned better afterwards. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Never again after this quaint failure did Mecca make an effective rally against Muhammad, and one by one its leading men came over to his side. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- In England Sir Thomas More produced a quaint imitation of Plato's _Republic_ in his _Utopia_, setting out a sort of autocratic communism. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- One of the old ladies--Miss Noble, the aunt--is a wonderfully quaint picture of self-forgetful goodness, and Ladislaw gallants her about sometimes. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- A quainter corner than the corner where the Doctor lived, was not to be found in London. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
Checker: Willa