Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Quaill, Quale, n. Also: quail(l)e, qayle. [ME (14th c.) and e.m.E. quayle, quaill(e, OF quaille (F. caille).] The quail. = Quailȝe n. 1. 1456 Hay I 299/28.
And that he be lord of his subjectis, as to the quaile the sperhauk 1513 Doug. ix Prol. 50 (C).
To chace pertryk or quaill [: availl; Ruddim. quale] Ib. xii Prol. 241.
The gukgo galys, and so quytteris the quaill [: euery vaill] 1584 Sempill Sat. P. xlv 25.
Manna and quales he thocht no fude c1590 Fowler I 340/37.
The robin, wraine, & whutinge quaill 1602 Colville Paraenese Ep. 71.
The exemple of God almychty in raning doun his quailles and manna … vpon his famissit pepill 1665 Inventory of Pictures in Clerk of Penicuik MSS (Reg. H.) 6 (1 Jan.).
Ane qayle holding a croun in his neb 1685 Acts VIII 477/1.
For the preservation and increase of partridge muirfoull, heathfowle and quaills (which are so much decayed of late)