Dictionary

quarter-century en · NOUN

Etymology

From quarter + century.

Meanings

1. A period of twenty-five years.
   • In the present writer's opinion there was no greater and more successful locomotive engineer in the country, during the first quarter-century, than George Jackson Churchward of the Great Western Railway. This statement is made without prejudice, for I was brought up on the other line extending from Waterloo to Padstow, and between Swindon and Eastleigh there was a great gulf fixed. 1957 July 14, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Six Decades of Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 471:
   • I spent my second quarter-century Losing what I had learnt at university And refusing to take in what had happened since […] 1978, Philip Larkin, The Winter Palace:

Forms

Relateds

half-century

Translations (10)

ja 四半世紀 (period of twenty-five years) · cs čtvrtstoletí (period of twenty-five years) · eo kvaronjarcento (period of twenty-five years) · et veerandsajand (period of twenty-five years) · fr quart de siècle (period of twenty-five years) · de Vierteljahrhundtert (period of twenty-five years) · sk štvrťstoročie (period of twenty-five years) · nl kwarteeuw (period of twenty-five years) · pl ćwierćwiecze (period of twenty-five years) · sq çerekshekull (period of twenty-five years)