Definition of quaint

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< quail

quake >

quaint    (kwnt) KEY  

ADJECTIVE:
quaint·er , quaint·est

1. Charmingly odd, especially in an old-fashioned way: "Sarah Orne Jewett . . . was dismissed by one critic as merely a New England old maid who wrote quaint, plotless sketches of late 19th-century coastal Maine" (James McManus).
2. Unfamiliar or unusual in character; strange: quaint dialect words. See Synonyms at strange.
3. Cleverly made; artful.

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ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English, clever, cunning, peculiar, from Old French queinte, cointe, from Latin cognitus, past participle of cognscere, to learn ; see cognition

OTHER FORMS:
quaintly (Adverb), quaintness (Noun)

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