quizn.
/kwɪz/, U.S. /kwɪz/ I. Senses relating to oddness or eccentricity. Now rare and archaic.† 2. = bandalore n. Obsolete.
1. † b. With of. A peculiar or ridiculous thing. Obsolete.
a. An odd or eccentric person; a person whose appearance is peculiar or ridiculous.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > slight madness > crankiness or eccentricity > person
fantastical1589
fantastic1598
earwig brain1599
extravagant1627
fanatic1644
energumen1660
original1675
toy-pate1702
gig1777
quiz1780
quoz?1780
rum touch1800
crotcheteer1815
pistol1828
eccentric1832
case1833
originalist1835
cure1856
crotchet-monger1874
curiosity1874
crank1881
crackpot1883
faddist1883
schwärmer1884
hard case1892
finger1899
mad hatter1905
nut1908
numéro1924
screwball1933
wack1938
fruitcake1942
odd bod1942
oddball1943
ghoster1953
raver1959
kook1960
flake1968
woo-woo1972
zonky1972
wacko1977
headbanger1981
1780 ‘R. Wittol’ Incredible Bore 13 I found myself plac'd 'twixt a chandler's fat wife,And a fellow who (damme) knew nothing of life.Methinks 'tis a pleasantish day, says the dame,To which I assented, the Quiz did the same.
?1781 C. A. Burney Diary ?24 June in F. Burney Early Diary (1889) II. 297 He's a droll quiz, and I rather like him.
1782 V. Knox Ess. (new ed.) II. cii. 83 There are a few who take a pleasure in conversing on letters; but they are solitary mortals, and themselves are stigmatized, in the cant language of the place [sc. the universities of Oxford and Cambridge], with the name of Quizzes.
1785 Span. Rivals 8 Ay, he's a queer Quis.
1793 J. Beresford in W. Roberts Looker-on No. 51. 405 Some college cell, Where muzzing quizzes mutter monkish schemes.
1818 Ld. Dudley Let. 14 Feb. (1840) 196 Nor are we by any means such quizzes or such bores as the wags pretend.
1852 Mrs. Smythies Bride Elect xiii If she really means to marry that quiz for the sake of his thousands.
a1855 C. Brontë Professor (1857) I. iii. 50 He was not odd—no quiz.
1879 J. Planché Telemachus iii. 185 Who's his friend I wonder? Some queer old quiz, who looks as black as thunder.
1982 R. Davies High Spirits xv. 160 Consider the Pleasure Principle and dry your eyes. You look a perfect Quiz.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > lack of beauty > [noun] > odd thing
quiz1793
1793 C. Dibdin Etymol. of Quiz 4 But lest, having chaunted of quizzes so long, You begin to think this but a quiz of a song.
1794 R. Cumberland Box-lobby Challenge i. ii. 9 Which now is of the longest standing in the family, you, or that damn'd old quiz of a coat you are dusting?
1806 A. Seward Let. 26 Mar. in W. Partington Private Letter-bks. Sir Walter Scott (1930) 257 Possibly this quiz of a poem may obtain sale and circulation amongst the Methodists.
a1817 J. Austen Northanger Abbey (1818) I. vii. 96 Where did you get that quiz of a hat? View more context for this quotation
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > toy or plaything > other toys > [noun] > bandalore
quiz1792
bandalore1824
1792 Sequel Adventures Munchausen xi. 178 She darted and recoiled the quizzes in her right and left hand.
a1833 T. Moore in Mem. (1853) I. 12 The Duke..was, I recollect, playing with one of those toys called quizzes.
a1833 T. Moore Mem. (1853) I. 11 A certain toy very fashionable about the year 1789 or 1790 called in French a ‘bandalore’ and in English a ‘quiz’.
II. Senses relating to mockery or questioning.
3. † b. The action of mocking someone or something. Also: the action of examining something closely (rare). Obsolete.
a. A practical joke; a hoax, a piece of mockery or banter; a witticism.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > derision, ridicule, or mockery > banter or good-humoured ridicule > [noun] > piece or instance of
jest1548
rallery1645
raillery1653
rally1659
banter1679
quiz1795
josh1878
the mind > emotion > pleasure > laughter > causing laughter > mischievous or practical joking > [noun] > instance of
jest1578
jig1592
wilec1600
waggery1604
pleasance1668
quiz1795
practical joke1804
skite1804
skit1815
galliardise1842
leg-pull1893
rannygazoo1896
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > cheating, fraud > trickery, playing jokes > [noun] > a trick, prank, hoax
pratOE
mowa1393
pageant?c1430
jimp?1572
prank1576
jest1578
jig1592
frump1593
trick1605
bilk1664
fun1699
plisky1706
humbug1750
hum1751
practical joke1751
marlock1763
quiz1795
practical joke1804
skite1804
hoax1808
skit1815
wrinkle1817
rusty1835
funny business1838
string1851
stringer1851
cod1862
mank1865
spoof1889
leg-pull1893
rannygazoo1896
shenanigan1926
gotcha1967
to throw a fastball1968
wind-up1984
1795 Kentish Reg. III. 310 Whether its better in the mind to suffer the laughes and quizzes of the powder'd pates.
1801 J. Minshull Rural Felicity 65 Then join in the chorus, no fear it is said, To laugh at the point where the quiz was play'd By a young wag and a comely young blade.
1805 S. J. Pratt Harvest Home III. 133 And call the scheme - a Nullity, Poetic folly, quiz, and trope, And for th'Inventor vote a Rope.
1826 W. Scott Jrnl. 11 Feb. (1939) 100 I should have thought the thing a quiz, but that the novel was real.
1835 N. P. Willis Pencillings II. lxiv. 189 Whipping in with a quiz or a witticism whenever he could get an opportunity.
1840 T. Hood Up Rhine 103 Frank whispered that he was travelling for Rundell and Bridge, but I suspect that was only a quiz.
1870 J. R. Green Lett. (1901) iii. 254 What a taste for a quiz a Professorship seems to develop.
1898 W. S. Gilbert Bab Ballads 416 But no; resolved to have her quiz, The lady held her own—and his.
1966 L. MacNeice Coll. Poems (1979) 398 Quiz and quirk, Riddle and slapstick, kept the dark at bay.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > derision, ridicule, or mockery > banter or good-humoured ridicule > [noun]
mirth1560
dicacity1592
jest1597
pleasantry1602
raillery1642
rallery1652
badinage1658
banter1660
disport1667
badinerie1712
rig1725
bantery1739
jokery1740
persiflage1757
quizzery1809
quiz1819
chaff1841
borak1845
barrackc1890
mickey-take1968
smack talk1989
bants2008
1819 Quizzical Gaz. No. 5/1 The Editor..declares this the only article in the Paper devoid of Quiz.
1841 T. Hood Tale of Trumpet iii, in New Monthly Mag. Sept. 157 You may join the genteelest party that is, And enjoy all the scandal, and gossip, and quiz.
1857 ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 42 Go to pigeon fancery, And know each breed by quiz of eye.
4. A person who ridicules or who engages in banter; a wit; a mocker; a practical joker.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > derision, ridicule, or mockery > banter or good-humoured ridicule > [noun] > one who banters
railleur1655
raillier1663
banterer1678
rallier1678
badineur1734
quiz1797
quizzer1797
queerera1800
smoker1812
persifleur1829
chaffer1851
tease1853
leg-puller1887
josher1899
ragger1903
kibitzer1925
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > wit, wittiness > [noun] > witty person > intending to ridicule
quiz1797
quizzer1797
queerera1800
1797 Quiz No. 13. 85 Now, gentlemen, as you have taken to yourselves the name of Quizzes, I request to know [etc.].
1801 Port Folio 17 Oct. 335/2 A barber once asking an old misanthropical quiz, what could be the reason that women had no beards? ‘Lend me the pen,’ said surly, ‘and I will write it you down.’
1836 Quiz No. 1. 4/2 A true Quiz is imperturbable: therefore is Talleyrand the Prince of Quizzers.
1843 C. Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) ix. 101 ‘What a wicked girl you are!’ cried Mrs. Todgers, embracing her with great affection. ‘You're quite a quiz I do declare!’
1899 Eng. Hist. Rev. Apr. 36 Braving the ridicule with which it pleased the quizzes of the day to asperse the husband chosen for her.
1935 R. A. Knox Barchester Pilgrimage ii. 57 The mother was a quiz; she quizzed her son, instead of rebuking him, when he was ill-behaved.
5.
a. A set of questions used to test knowledge or to promote learning; spec. (originally and chiefly North American) a short oral or written examination given by a teacher.pop quiz: see as main entry.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > testing > [noun] > method of
solvitur ambulando1852
quiz1867
test1910
society > education > educational administration > examination > [noun] > oral or viva examination
viva voce1842
quiz1867
oral1876
defence1888
viva1891
1867 W. James Let. 26 Dec. in R. B. Perry Thought & Char. W. James (1935) I. xiv. 254 Occasional review articles, etc., perhaps giving ‘quizzes’ in anatomy and physiology..may help along.
1888 Amer. Law Reg. n.s. 36 417 The class-room exercise is neither a recitation nor a lecture. It would more properly be called a conference or quiz.
1895 Proc. 14th Convent. Amer. Instructors of Deaf 314 My first lesson should be in the form of a quiz.
1906 Elem. School Teacher 6 201 This period should usually take the form of a ‘quiz’, both teacher and class asking and answering questions.
1907 Springfield (Mass.) Weekly Republican 7 Feb. 16 For the food chemists the quiz included a study of both French and German.
1931 H. F. Pringle Theodore Roosevelt i. xvi. 228 This distinguished jurist agreed to lend books and give him a quiz each Saturday.
1957 Economist 19 Oct. 202 To what kind of searching test should an advertiser subject a prospective agent? A friendly personal quiz?
1973 Houston Chron. 14 Oct. (Texas Mag.) 16/4 The teacher erased the board, wrote up new multiplication problems, distributed paper and drilled for the next day's quiz.
1992 Equinox Aug. 96/1 They are raising the unholy ruckus that is the natural right of anyone spending a perfect summer away from home, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest social studies quiz and parental curfew.
2005 E. Alphin Perfect Shot 92 Some students used the extra time to study for a quiz.
b. A set of questions provided as an entertainment; spec. a series of questions asked of competing individuals or teams, and often divided into rounds. Now chiefly British.pub quiz: see pub quiz n. at pub n.1 Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > quiz or panel game > [noun]
quiz1929
panel game1952
panel show1954
1929 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 26 Apr. 18 c/5 No one will know until the judges get together at the end as the ‘best’ or ‘official solutions’ are picked from those solutions sent in by the participants in the Quiz.
1941 Scribner's Commentator Feb. 86 (heading) Quiz by the Quiz kids.
1941 L. MacNeice Poetry of Yeats i. 114 We must..in literary criticism be careful not to write as if we were solving a popular Quiz—as if there were a stock set of answers.
1977 Evening Post (Nottingham) 24 Jan. 7/9 Tuxford Young Farmers A team defeated their B team in the third round of the county Inter-Club Quiz to reach the semi-finals.
1990 Daily Star 23 Oct. 17/1 It's the sport's quiz that even people who hate sport will watch.
1997 M. Schor Wet ii. 96 The answer to ‘What happens ten months of the year in the art world?’ is printed upside down, like a newspaper quiz.
2001 Spectator 21 Apr. 53 Any quiz in which someone has to say, ‘and the rules for this round are as follows’..has missed the point and will probably fail.
Compounds
(In sense 5.) C1.
quiz compère n.
ΚΠ
1959 Listener 28 May 958/3 A deed which earned what our Quiz compères insist on calling ‘a big hand’.
2006 Evening Standard (Nexis) 31 Aug. b14 ‘We are oversubscribed for the evening,’ says the quiz compere.
quiz game n.
ΚΠ
1928 Jrnl. Relig. 8 335 As a manual for a quiz game the book may have some use; as a manual of religious education it is an excellent illustration of what religious education is not.
1945 East Jefferson Sentinel (Edgewater, Colorado) 26 July 5/4 Mrs Critchfield, chairman and hostess, then conducted three quiz games.
2006 Daily Mail (Nexis) 24 Sept. (Business) Safeguards to protect television quiz game players from becoming addicted and running up huge bills failed when put to the test by Financial Mail.
quiz paper n.
ΚΠ
1914 D. R. Campbell Proving Virginia xiii. 226 The black-robed Seniors assembled..to perform the last holy rites over their antique manuscripts, quiz papers, precious testimonials of mid-night toil.
1936 L. C. Douglas White Banners viii. 163 It was not easy to concentrate on classroom lectures, student interviews, quiz-papers, and seminars.
2006 Herald Express (Torquay) (Nexis) 2 Jan. 22 Members unwrapped the crackers and used the serviette for the meal. There was a quiz paper on each table providing amusement.
quiz party n.
ΚΠ
1949 ‘J. Tey’ Brat Farrar vi. 47 He..had always come to an examination paper with the same faint pleasure that an addict brings to a quiz party.
1991 T. A. Delong Quiz Craze ii. 7 Station KMTR in Hollywood took advantage of this quiz-book craze by urging people to organize ‘quiz parties’ around their radio and entertain each other by calling out answers before the announcer did.
quiz programme n.
ΚΠ
1936 Mansfield (Ohio) News 3 Oct. 5/1 6:00—Quiz Program.
1972 Language 48 341 Elicitory question intonation..presupposes that there is information being withheld, and hence is easily associated with teachers or quiz-program M.C.'s.
2005 New Statesman 30 May 39/2 [On television] reality shows, amateur dancing and quiz programmes have replaced any sense of public responsibility..for supplying an audience with properly funded creative initiatives.
quiz show n.
ΚΠ
1938 Ada (Okla.) Evening News 29 Apr. 2/5 6:45—(MBS) News Testers. Conducted by Leonard M. Leonard; audience participation quiz show.
1954 G. Marx Let. 16 Aug. in G. Marx et al. Groucho Lett. (1967) 93 The gibbering idiots on panel shows, quiz shows, and other half hours of tripe.
1998 Independent 9 Mar. ii. 12/1 Telly Addicts. More saddos reach for the button in this long-running, Noel Edmonds-centred quiz show.
quiz team n.
ΚΠ
1945 Times 21 Dec. 6/1 (television listing) 7.10. Quiz Team.
1957 R. Hoggart Uses of Literacy vi. 155 The typically outspoken member in a radio quiz-team represents both the old-style ‘card’ and this modern allegorical figure, the ‘idiosyncratic hero’.
1976 Lancs. Evening Post 7 Dec. 2/4 Preston's BBC Radio 2 quiz team to meet Blackpool's in a broadcast competition.
1998 A. Chaudhuri Freedom Song (1999) 92 This boyhood, of private tutorials, practising maths questions from past question papers, of being in the school quiz team,..none of it would last long.
quiz-viewer n.
ΚΠ
1959 New Statesman 24 Jan. 107/2 Its audience was almost certainly enlarged this week by the unconscious sadism, latent in all quiz-viewers, which such entertainments harmlessly release and satisfy.
1995 B. R. Clifford et al. Television & Children vii. 186 Medium to heavy quiz viewers outperformed light viewers.
quiz-type adj.
ΚΠ
1940 Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner 11 Feb. 13 a/5 The program is a new quiz type show in which the actors illustrate a difficult predicament, then persons chosen from the studio audience are asked to tell how they'd get out of it.
1963 Times 19 Jan. 4/6 It was Sound, after all, which invented several other quiz, or quiz-type, programmes.
2006 Salt Lake Tribune (Nexis) 22 Apr. Everyone's feelings about other members of the former Casaya tribe came out in the quiz-type reward challenge.
C2.
quiz kid n. originally and chiefly U.S. (a) (with capital initials) a child who participated in Quiz Kids, a radio and (later) television quiz show (see quot. 19401); (b) (in extended use) an ostentatiously intelligent person, esp. a young one.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > sharpness, shrewdness, insight > would-be clever person > [noun]
clever-boots1847
smarty1847
smart alec1864
clever-clogs1866
clever-sides1886
clever Dick1895
wise guy1896
wisenheimer1904
smarty-pants1935
quiz kid1940
smart apple1940
smarty-boots1950
smart-ass1958
slick1959
clever-sticks1964
smart-arse1965
wise-ass1971
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > intelligence, cleverness > high intelligence, genius > [noun] > person of superior intellect, genius > child
prodigya1684
child prodigy1860
sharpshins1883
quiz kid1940
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > quiz or panel game > [noun] > panellist > specific type
quiz kid1940
1940 Chicago Tribune 28 June 22/2 A new radio program, ‘Quiz Kids’..has its first airing tonight... Some bright boys and girls were rounded up and a recording made of their answers to a number of questions fired at them.]
1940 Chicago Tribune 28 June 22/3 Say, who do you think I am—a Quiz Kid?
1959 Encounter July 38/2 He [sc. Lord Northcliffe] was a true child of the age—the first and greatest of all quiz-kids.
1972 Times 19 Oct. 10/3 He suppresses his taste for swanky, quiz-kids words (telangiectatic, ichor, fastigiate).
1984 Los Angeles Times 25 Nov. vii. 1/2 She took over the management of our money, charming bank clerks and handling exchange rates with the..quiz-kid mind of an algebra student.
2001 W. O'Shaughnessy It All comes back to me Now 29 Andy's bio doesn't tell us, ladies and gentlemen, that he was a Quiz Kid on the coast-to-coast radio program.
quizmaster n. †(a) North American a teacher or other person giving a quiz to students (obsolete); (b) chiefly British a person who presides over a quiz game, esp. on radio or television; = question master n. at question n. Compounds 4.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > teaching > teacher > schoolteacher or schoolmaster > [noun] > other schoolteachers
gerund-grinder1710
hedge-schoolmaster1830
grammatist1850
discipline master1863
quizmaster1878
careers master1943
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > quiz or panel game > [noun] > one who presides over
quizmaster1878
question master1937
1878 Med. & Surg. Reporter 21 Dec. 541/2 This is a sort of vest-pocket compendium of chemistry, arranged in the form of question and answer, so that the student can readily post himself on the inquiries likely to be propounded to him by the quiz master or the professor.
1889 Cent. Dict. Quiz-master, the teacher or leader of a quiz-class.
1949 Radio Times 15 July 15/1 Round Britain Quiz... Quiz-Master, Gilbert Harding.
1964 C. Barber Ling. Change Present-day Eng. ii. 20 B.B.C. announcers may be less influential than comedians, quizmasters, compères, and ‘personalities’.
1996 Sunday Tel. (Sydney) 18 Aug. 15/1 The appointment of the former Sale Of The Century quizmaster has proven a perilous investment for Seven.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
quizv.1
/kwɪz/, U.S. /kwɪz/ 1. transitive. To make fun of, mock, or tease (a person); to satirize (a thing). Also occasionally intransitive: to mock, to talk wittily. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > derision, ridicule, or mockery > banter or good-humoured ridicule > banter [verb (transitive)]
tauntc1530
railly1668
rally1672
banter1677
smoke1699
to get, take, or have a rise out of1703
joke1748
to run a rig1764
badinage1778
queer1778
quiz1787
to poke (one's) fun (at)1795
gammon1801
chaff1826
to run on ——1830
rig1841
trail1847
josh1852
jolly1874
chip1898
barrack1901
horse1901
jazz1927
to take the mike out ofa1935
to take the piss (out of)1945
to take the mickey (out of)1948
1787 Microcosm No. 29. 334 Many pieces of mud and some stones were thrown, notwithstanding I advanced safe under cover of my nose, still quizzed and still pelted.
1796 Accurate & Impartial Narr. Campaigns 1793–4 (ed. 3) II. viii. 51 And quiz every blockhead accounted a boar.
1801 M. Edgeworth Forester in Moral Tales I. 23 He spent his time in..ridiculing, or, in his own phrase, quizzing every sensible young man.
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. xvi. 258 Young gentlemen are apt to quiz; and I think that being quizzed hurts my authority with the men.
1870 J. R. Green Lett. (1901) iii. 254 What a charming tongue Latin is for quizzing in.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People v. §1. 214 Chaucer..quizzes in the rime of Sir Thopaz the wearisome idleness of the French romance.
1935 R. A. Knox Barchester Pilgrimage ii. 57 The mother was a quiz; she quizzed her son, instead of rebuking him, when he was ill behaved; she quizzed others, his elders, in his presence.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > other amusements or entertainments > [verb (intransitive)]
wawc1440
swing1662
quizc1790
sea-bathe1792
mudlark1870
pogo1921
yo-yo1932
to jump rope1934
c1790 T. Moore in Mem. (1853) I. 11 The ladies too, when in the streets,..Went quizzing on, to show their shapes and graceful mien.
1792 Sequel Adventures Baron Munchausen II. xi. 182 The whole house rose up to catch her, and approached in tumult..the matrons quizzing as much as possible in every direction which very much startled Wauwau.
3. transitive (a) To regard with amusement or scorn; to appraise mockingly; (b) to peer inquisitively at; to watch or examine closely, to interrogate with the eyes, study. Also occasionally intransitive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > derision, ridicule, or mockery > deride, ridicule, or mock [verb (transitive)] > regard with air of mockery
quiz1795
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > seeing or looking > see [verb (transitive)] > look at or behold > with an air of mockery
quiz1795
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > seeing or looking > see [verb (intransitive)] > peer
toot?c1225
porec1300
pirea1393
peer1580
pink1587
under-peer1589
blink1600
to look wormsc1600
squinny1608
pee1673
pore1706
pinker1754
styme1808
speer1866
squint1891
quiz1906
skeeze1922
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > seeing or looking > see [verb (transitive)] > peer
under-peer1589
overpeer1596
quiz1906
squiz1941
1795 Capt. Topham Prol., in M. P. Andrews Myst. Castle The rude boy, from Westminster or Eton, Who ‘spies’, and ‘quizzes’ one, where'er they meet one.
1795 M. P. Andrews Myst. Castle i. iii. 27 Always grinning, Mouthing, chinning—Let us quiz, His ugly phiz; Giggling, whilst he's grinning—.
1815 Sporting Mag. 45 161 All were sneering at Sam, and they quizz'd and they gaz'd.
1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 231 Quizzing the little daughter of Terpsichore through his eye-glass.
1906 T. Hardy Dynasts: Pt. 2nd ii. vi. 95 Better quiz evils with too strained an eye Than have them leap from disregarded lairs.
1909 T. Hardy Time's Laughingstocks & Other Verses 77 The stars..Quiz downward curiously.
1911 C. Mackenzie Passionate Elopement 26 But somehow it was no longer amusing to quizz the young woman..through his ivory rimmed perspective.
1950 E. G. Patterson in H. Brickell O. Henry Prize Stories of 1951 (1951) 235 They spoke with a kind of nervous excitement, quizzing her a little with their eyes but, for a time at least, skirting wide any mention of her personal affairs.
1952 H. Innes Campbell's Kingdom 75 To my astonishment she quizzed me through a gold lorgnette as I entered the room.
2002 M. Riera & J. Di Prisco Right from Wrong ii. 27 Celeste quizzed him with her eyes. She didn't know where this was going yet.
4.
a. transitive. To question or interrogate (a person), esp. orally.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > interrogation > question, interrogate [verb (transitive)]
afraynec1380
speera1400
refraynea1450
searcha1450
questiona1470
interrogate1483
interrogue1484
demanda1513
pose1526
ferret1582
shrive1592
samen?1620
query1653
quiza1843
hackle1891
rag1908
a1843 R. Southey Doctor (1847) VII. 85 She com back an' quiesed us.
1871 M. J. Holmes Millbank xx. 156 Once she thought of quizzing Aleck to see if he too knew about it.
1893 R. M. Fergusson My Village xi. 99 She would gossip..and quiz her visitors as to what was going on in the village.
1928 J. Sykes Mary Anne Disraeli viii. 79 So far forgot his good manners as to quiz Mrs. Disraeli at the dinner-table.
1978 J. Irving World according to Garp xiii. 248 He quizzed him about emergency phone numbers.
2003 C. McCann Dancer 97 He brought in a number of local carpenters and quizzed them about the composition of the wood, the length and direction of the grain.
b. transitive. North American. To test the understanding or educational progress of (a student or class of students) by means of a quiz (quiz n. 5). Also occasionally intransitive.
ΚΠ
1866 Harper's Mag. June 134/2 Professor I-I..quizzed them [sc. his class] thoroughly on the difference between fracture of the skull and concussion of the brain, and was pleased to see that all understood it.
1887 Cal. University Michigan 138 The different classes will be quizzed by the assistant, at least once a week, upon the lectures heard during the preceding week.
1894 Manufacturer & Builder Nov. 246/2 I heard him [sc. a teacher] quizzing a class of boys and girls on..the edentates of South America.
1922 History Apr. 72 Only 43·4 per cent. of the teachers quiz in class.
1958 Eureka (Calif.) Humboldt Standard 19 Feb. 6/7 Mrs. Light then quizzed the class on the aims of the National Congress of Mothers, forerunners of PTA, and concluded with the pupils singing ‘School Days’.
2006 Timmins (Ont.) Daily Press (Nexis) 11 Nov. a1 Power quizzed students about Remembrance Day's meaning and often they answered correctly.
c. transitive. To find out (something) by questioning. English regional. rare.
ΚΠ
1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. at Quiz out Her on't be very long 'vore her'll quiz it all out.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
† quizv.2
Obsolete. rare.
intransitive. To make a whirring sound.
ΚΠ
1866 A. I. Thackeray Village on Cliff xiii, in Cornhill Mag. Nov. 526 There was a sound of grasshoppers quizzing at their feet.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
<
n.1780
v.11787
v.21866