<?xml version="1.0"?>       <!DOCTYPE package PUBLIC "+//ISBN 0-9673008-1-9//DTD OEB 1.0 Package//EN"         "http://openebook.org/dtds/oeb-1.0/oebdoc1.dtd"><html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/x-oeb1-document; charset=utf-8" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/x-oeb1-css" href="devil.css" /><title>The Devil&#8217;s Dictionary: Q</title></head><body lang="en-US">  <h1>Q</h1> <p class="entry"><span class="def">queen</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A womanby whom the realm is ruled when there is a king, and through whom it is ruledwhen there is not.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">quill</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Animplement of torture yielded by a goose and commonly wielded by an ass. Thisuse of the quill is now obsolete, but its modern equivalent, the steel pen, iswielded by the same everlasting Presence.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">quiver</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Aportable sheath in which the ancient statesman and the aboriginal lawyercarried their lighter arguments.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">He extracted from his quiver,</p><p class="poetry">Did the controversial Roman,</p><p class="poetry">An argument well fitted</p><p class="poetry">To the question as submitted,</p><p class="poetry">Then addressed it to the liver,</p><p class="poetry">Of the unpersuaded foeman.</p><p class="citeauth">Oglum P. Boomp</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">quixotic</span>, <span class="pos">adj.</span> Absurdlychivalric, like Don Quixote. An insight into the beauty and excellence of thisincomparable adjective is unhappily denied to him who has the misfortune toknow that the gentleman’s name is pronounced Ke-ho-tay.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">When ignorance from out of our lives can banish Philology, ‘tis folly to know Spanish.</p><p class="citeauth">Juan Smith</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">quorum</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Asufficient number of members of a deliberative body to have their own way andtheir own way of having it. In the United States Senate a quorum consists ofthe chairman of the Committee on Finance and a messenger from the White House;in the House of Representatives, of the Speaker and the devil.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">quotation</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Theact of repeating erroneously the words of another. </p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">The words erroneously repeated.</p><p class="poetry">Intent on making his quotation truer,</p><p class="poetry">He sought the page infallible of Brewer,</p><p class="poetry">Then made a solemn vow that we would be</p><p class="poetry">Condemned eternally. Ah, me, ah, me!</p><p class="citeauth">Stumpo Gaker</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">quotient</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Anumber showing how many times a sum of money belonging to one person iscontained in the pocket of another—usually about as many times as it can be got there.</p> </body>    </html>