quarry

1 of 4

noun (1)

quar·​ry ˈkwȯr-ē 

ˈkwär-

plural quarries

1

: game

specifically : game hunted with hawks

2

: one that is sought or pursued : prey

3

obsolete : a heap of the game killed in a hunt

quarry

2 of 4

noun (2)

plural quarries

1

: an open excavation usually for obtaining building stone, slate, or limestone

2

: a rich source

quarry

3 of 4

verb

quarried; quarrying

transitive verb

1

: to dig or take from or as if from a quarry

quarry marble

2

: to make a quarry in

quarry a hill

intransitive verb

: to delve in or as if in a quarry

quarry

4 of 4

noun (3)

plural quarries

: a diamond-shaped pane of glass, stone, or tile

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• chase
• prey

Examples of quarry in a Sentence

Verb

an area where workers are quarrying for limestone

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Woman Dies After Loose Wheel Smashes Into Her Windshield on Indiana Highway, Police Say Crews responded to the quarry, owned by Mulzer Crushed Stone Inc., around 2 p.m. local time, the Indiana DNR said. —Abigail Adams, Peoplemag, 13 Sep. 2023

The developers are working with the county to envision alternative uses for the 450-acre quarry property, Lighthizer said. —Lia Russell, Baltimore Sun, 2 Aug. 2023

Radioactive waste contaminated the area, including a large quarry that eventually became a Superfund cleanup site in 1987. —Michael Phillis and Jim Salter, Chicago Tribune, 12 July 2023

The granite base originated from a quarry in Quincy, and a Massachusetts foundry cast the bronze. —Kate Armanini, BostonGlobe.com, 25 May 2023

Within the city itself, Pokémon GO trainers will use their mobile app to navigate around all five boroughs in search of their quarry. —Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 19 Aug. 2023

This call to arms is chilling, especially for those of us likely to be among the post-liberals’ quarry, but Ahmari is explicit that his new book is not intended as another fusillade in the culture war (or the more alarming effort to supplant the culture war with authoritarian repression). —Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post, 28 July 2023

In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration also opened quarries across the state that yielded discoveries, many of which are stored in collections at the University of Texas at Austin but seldom displayed. —Asher Elbein Nina Riggio, New York Times, 17 July 2023

After hours of careful searching in the sticky heat, the group had finally found their quarry: a massive Burmese python, commonly hunted in the Florida Everglades to mitigate its impact as an invasive species. —Daniel Wu, Anchorage Daily News, 14 July 2023

Verb

One archaeological survey found 59 different places where obsidian was quarried in some fashion. —Jim Robbins, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2023

Its polished limestone flooring was quarried in Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus, and wood for its doors was imported from the Congo River region. —Jonathan Weil, WSJ, 16 July 2023

It’s known as Lasa marble, quarried in Italy and brought in by a Vermont importer. —Christopher Bonanos, Curbed, 1 Feb. 2023

The baths were rebuilt in the fourth century and were still in use in the fifth; some parts were subsequently rebuilt in timber and may still have been standing in the 12th century, when the site was quarried for building materials. —Franz Lidz, New York Times, 1 May 2023

Companies like Sumco, in Japan, process polycrystalline silicon sand, which is quarried for the world’s semiconductor companies in places like Brazil, France, and the Appalachian Mountains in the US, to grow hot single-crystal silicon ingots. —Virginia Heffernan, WIRED, 21 Mar. 2023

Its blue-limestone exterior, quarried on the grounds, illuminates in the cool sun reflected off the small lake to the north. —Josh Condon, Robb Report, 5 Mar. 2023

Two of Turkey’s largest construction firms, which have close ties to the government and have built many of the president’s projects, won the tender to build a new port in the town of Iyidere and a license to quarry black basalt for that port in Gurdere — both in Ikizdere district. —New York Times, 29 May 2021

Each year countless candidates come to quarry untold millions from the rich veins of campaign cash running through Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the hilltop mansions of San Francisco. —Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2022

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Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English quirre, querre entrails of game given to the hounds, from Anglo-French cureie, quereie, from quir, cuir skin, hide (on which the entrails were placed), from Latin corium — more at cuirass

Noun (2)

Middle English quarey, alteration of quarrere, from Anglo-French, from Vulgar Latin *quadraria, from Late Latin quadrus hewn (literally, squared) stone, from Latin quadrum square

Noun (3)

alteration of quarrel entry 1

First Known Use

Noun (1)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Noun (2)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1774, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Noun (3)

1537, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

quarry

1 of 3 noun

quar·​ry ˈkwȯr-ē 

ˈkwär-

plural quarries

1

: an animal hunted as game or prey

2

: something sought or chased after

quarry

2 of 3 noun

plural quarries

: an open pit usually for obtaining building stone, slate, or limestone

quarry

3 of 3 verb

quarried; quarrying

1

: to dig or take from or as if from a quarry

2

: to make a quarry in

quarrier noun

Etymology

Noun

Middle English querre "the part of a game animal given to the hounds," from early French cureie, quereie (same meaning), from cuir "skin, hide" (on which the animal parts were placed), from Latin corium (same meaning)

Noun

Middle English quarey, an altered form of quarrere "a place for digging stones for use in building," from Latin quadrus "hewn stone," literally, "squared stone," from Latin quadrum "a square"

Word Origin

The quarry a hunter chases is not related to the quarry that supplies building stones. The word for a hunter's quarry can be traced back to a ceremony that was once part of every successful hunt. The hounds used for chasing the game were rewarded after the kill by being allowed to eat part of the dead animal, which was given to them on a piece of hide. The French word for this hounds' share was cureie or quereie, which was borrowed into Middle English as querre. The word later came to be used for the live game animal itself. Now a quarry is anything that is pursued.