quirk

CEFRB2

/kwɜːk/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    An unusual habit or feature that makes someone distinctive.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A quibble, evasion, or subterfuge.

Examples

  • It was just a quirk of fate.

  • That was maybe a bit of a quirk of his.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. An acute angle dividing a molding; a groove that runs lengthwise between the upper part of a molding and a soffit.

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

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To (cause to) move with a wry jerk.

More examples

In context

  • That's just a quirk of his.

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

  • The corners of her mouth quirked.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

One strange blank of his personality is that he always wears mismatched socks.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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, die”), from Middle English querken, *quirken (“to choke”), from Old Norse kvirkja (“to choke, stran...