quirk

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a narrow groove beside a beading

   The quirk was too big in the beading to be useful.

2. 2
   noun

   a strange attitude or habit

   I've always loved your different quirks.

3. 3
   verb

   to twist or curve abruptly

   I quirked my head in a peculiar way.

4. 4
   noun

   An idiosyncrasy; a slight glitch, a mannerism; something unusual about the manner or style of something or someone.

   The car steers cleanly, but the gearshift has a few quirks.

5. 5
   noun

   A quibble, evasion, or subterfuge.

   Had you no quirk / To avoid gullage, sir, by such a creature?

6. 6
   verb

   To (cause to) move with a wry jerk.

   He quirked an eyebrow.

7. 7
   verb

   To alter in a unique and unusual way.

   But in the dream the forms are quirked by the peculiar troubles of the dreamer, whereas in myth the problems and solutions shown are directly valid for all mankind.

8. 8
   verb

   To use verbal tricks or quibbles.

   I have stung her and wrung her, The venom is working;— And if you had hung her With canting and quirking, She could not be deader than she will be soon

Etymology

First attested in the 1540s. Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Middle English *querk, from Old Norse kverk (“a bend or angle, especially below a cross-beam or below the chin, the bight of an axe", also "throat, gullet”), from Proto-Germanic *kwerkō (“throat, gullet”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour; maw”). Cognate with Scots querk (“throat", also "any hollow in the body, such as an armpit, groin, instep, etc.”), Icelandic kverk (“interior angle”). Also partially from dialectal quirk, querk (“a whim, fancy, fuss, huff, complaint", also "to peevishly grumble, grunt, sigh, croak,…