Here - Norm's Book Club

QUEER.
DICKENS Dombty i, I am so very queer that I must ask you
for a glass of wine and a morsel of that cake. 1885 Miss
BRAODON Wyllard"s Weird I. i. 39 That business on the
railway was enough to make any man feel queer.
3. Queer Street : An imaginary street where
people in difficulties are supposed to reside ;
hence, any difficulty, fix, or trouble, bad circum-
stances, debt, illness, etc. slang.
1837 LYTTON E. Maltrav. iv. vii, You are in the wrong
box planted in Queer Street, as we say in London. 1865
DICKENS Mat. Fr. in. i, Queer Street is full of lodgers just
at present. 1886 STEVENSON Dr. Jekyll t. (ed. 2) it The
more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.
4. Comb., as queer-looking, -shaped, -tempered.
iSas J. NEAL Brn. Jonathan 1 1. 171 A little, modest, queerlooking
brown girl. 1838 DICKENS Nick. Nick, x, You are
the longest-headed, queerest-tempered, old coiner of gold
and silver there ever was. 1891 1 . HARDY Tea (1900) 105/1
The queer-shaped flints.
2 . Queer, Thieve? cant. Forms : 6 quyer,
quyre, 6-7 quire, quyre, 7 queere, 9 queer.
[Of obscure origin: in later use (from c 1700)
identified in form with prec., and perh. associated
with it in meaning.] Bad; worthless.
The exact sense varies with the sb. j for a list of the commonest
phrases, as queer bird, buffer, bung, cole, etc. see the Diet.
Cant. Creia (a 1700). Cf. also the sbs., as CUFFIN, CULL,
etc. In quot. 1561 there may be an allusion to fuire choir.
1561 AWDELAY Frat. Yacab. (1869) 4 A Quire bird is one
that came lately out of prison. 1567 HARMAN Caveat (1869)
84 To ctitte quyre ivhyiides, to geue euell wordes or euell
languages. 1609 DEKKER Lanth. f, Candle Lt. Ciijb, To
the quier cuffing we bing. 1641 BROMR Jovial Crew iv. ii.
Wks. 1873 III. 431 The Quire Cove and the Harmanbeck.
a 1700 B. E. Diet. Cant. Crnv, Oueere, base, Roguish,
naught. i8
J. H. VAUX Flash Diet., Queer-tail, Persons
of no repute, hired to bail a prisoner in any bailable case.
[1865 DICKENS Mut. Fr. in. i, Concerning that bill-broking
branch of the business. .. What queer bills are to be bought,
and at what prices ':]
b. as sb. : Bad money ; base coin.
i8 J. H. VAUX Flash Diet.
Queer (kwl