Dictionary

quietus en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /kwaɪˈiːtəs/

Etymology

Short for Medieval Latin quiētus est (literally “he is quiet”). First attested in the 1530s. Earlier attested as Late Middle English quietus est. Doublet of coy, quiet, quit, and quite.

Meanings

1. (dated, uncountable, usually) A stillness or pause; something that quiets or represses; removal from activity.
   • Olive's specific terrors and dangers had by this time very much blown over; Basil Ransom had given no sign of life for ages, and Henry Burrage had certainly got his quietus before they went to Europe. 1885–1886, Henry James, chapter XXX, in The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC, 2nd book, page 284:
   • The very unromantically accoutred form of a keen-visaged, middle-aged female, padding heavily in bedroom slippers along the garden walk, gave its quietus to the situation. 1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
2. (dated, figuratively, uncountable, usually) Death.
   • When he himſelfe might his Quietus make / With a bare Bodkin? c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 265:
   • After a good deal of firing, and lying in wait - for every time he heard a shot down he'd go, and on coming to the surface, would only expose about two or three inches of his nose to fire at - we managed to give him his quietus. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 336:
3. (dated, uncountable, usually) Final settlement (e.g., of a debt).

Forms

Relateds

quiet · quiescence · quietude

Synonyms

fall · liquidation · exit · end · defunction · doom · sunset · demise · dematerialization · decease · mortality · demise · quietus · the big sleep · crash · tomb · downfall · fatality · dirt nap · sleep of the just · fatality · decomposition · celestial transfer · (the) bane · expiration · (the) end · passing · death · repose