quarry

Etymology 1

From Middle English quarere, from Medieval Latin quarreria (1266), literally a “place where stones are squared”, from Old French quarrière (compare modern French carrière), from Vulgar Latin *quadraria, from Latin quadrō (“I square”), itself from quadra (“a square”), from quattuor (“four”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwóres (“four”).

noun

1. (mining">mining) A site for mining">mining stone, limestone, or slate.
   Michelangelo personally quarried marble from the world-famous quarry at Carrara.
   There have been found certain Cements under Earth, that are very ſoft, and yet taken forth into the Sun, harden as hard as Marble: There are alſo ordinary Quarries in Sommerſet-shire, which in the Quarry cut ſoft to any bigneſs, and in the Building prove firm, and hard. 1670, Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban Francis Bacon], “Century V”, in Sylva Sylvarum, or, A Natural History, in Ten Centuries. Whereunto is Newly Added, the History Natural and Experimental of [Life] and Death, or of the Prolongation of Life. Published after the Authors Death. By William Rawley, Doctor in Divinity, One of His Majesties Chaplains. Whereunto is Added Articles of Inquiry, Touching Metals and Minerals. And the New Atlantis. As also the Life of the Right Honorable Francis Bacon, Never Added to this Book before. … With an Alphabetical Table of the Principal Things Contained in the Ten Centuries, 9th and last edition, London: Printed by J[ohn] R[edmayne] for William Lee, and are to be sold by George Sawbridg [et al.], →OCLC, paragraph 850, page 183

verb

1. (transitive) To obtain (or mine) stone by extraction from a quarry.
   The incloſing of this country might alſo be effected, were the landlord to quarry the ſtones, and build the walls at his expence, and the tenant to carry the materials, and pay intereſt for the money advanced by the landlord. 1794, James Donaldson, “Miscellaneous Observations and Hints for Improvement”, in General View of the Agriculture of the County of Elgin or Moray, Lying between the Spey and the Findhorn; including Part of Strathspey, in the County of Inverness. With Observations on the Means of Its Improvement, … Drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement, London: Printed by C. Clarke, →OCLC, page 34
   The stone of which this town and church was built, is somewhat of the nature of "rotten limestone,"—is quite light in color,—quarries out regularly and easily,—is soft, when first quarried, but becomes hard on exposure to the air. 1847, George C. Furber, chapter IV, in The Twelve Months Volunteer; or, Journal of a Private in the Tennessee Regiment of Cavalry, in the Campaign in Mexico, 1846–7 … Engravings from Drawings by the Author, Cincinnati, Oh.: J. A. & U. P. James, →OCLC; republished as The Twelve Months Volunteer: Journal of a Private in the Tennessee Regiment of Cavalry (Applewood's Military History Series), Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Publishers, 2009, page 150
   In Lexington, which was just then establishing itself as the principal town in Kentucky, he found work quarrying stone for a tavern keeper. Once again, the wages were low, and his employer "strove by every means in his power to take advantage of me." 1999, Stephen A. Aron, “‘The Poor Men to Starve’: The Lives and Times of Workingmen in Early Lexington”, in Craig Thompson Friend, editor, The Buzzel about Kentuck: Settling the Promised Land, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, page 175
   Today the extractive industry utilizes sand and gravel reserves and quarries stone in Wingdale. 2008, Donna P. Hearn, “The Iron and Marble Industries”, in Dover (Images of America), Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, page 77
2. (figurative, transitive) To extract or slowly obtain by long, tedious searching.
   They quarried out new, interesting facts about ancient Egypt from old papyri.
   The second part of Aristotle's work requires little description. […] It has been largely quarried by the grammarians and lexicographers of later ages, from whom modern students of Athenian antiquities have derived their information; […] 1892, F[rederic] G[eorge] Kenyon, “Introduction”, in Aristotle, edited by F. G. Kenyon, ΑΘΗΝΑΙΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ [ATHĒNAIŌN POLITEIA]: Aristotle on the Constitution of Athens, 3rd rev. edition, Oxford: Printed at the Clarendon Press, →OCLC; republished Clark, N.J.: Lawbook Exchange, 2004, page xlviii
   They will be guided and inspired by such utterance as Parrington's diagnosis of Sinclair Lewis, where he quarries out a vein of his own enduring liberalism. 1927, Vernon Louis Parrington, The Beginnings of Critical Realism in America: 1860–1920 (Main Currents in American Thought; III), New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace, →OCLC; republished as Bruce Brown, “Introduction to the Transaction Edition”, in The Beginnings of Critical Realism in America, New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2013

Etymology 2

From Middle English quyrrey, querre, curee, quirre, from Anglo-Norman quirreie, from Old French cuiriee (“entrails of deer placed on the hide and given to dogs of the chase as a reward”) (influenced by cuir (“skin (of an animal)”), from Latin corium (“a hide”)), from coree (“entrails, viscera”), from Vulgar Latin corata (“entrails”), from Latin cor (“heart”).

noun

1. (uncountable, obsolete) A part of the entrails of a hunted animal, given to the hounds as a reward.
2. (uncountable) An animal, often a bird or mammal, which is hunted.
   Nofi Raranta, 37, the town's main clove dealer, is also the top hunter, employing about a hundred men who comb the surrounding forests for quarry. 2017 March, Jennifer S. Holland, “For These Monkeys, It’s a Fight for Survival”, in National Geographic, archived from the original on 2017-05-03
3. (countable) An object of search or pursuit.
   A US State Department website advertised a reward of up to $1m (£500,000) for the capture of its quarry Abdul Hadi al Iraqi], who was described as 5ft 11in (180cm) tall, with a pale complexion, "a moustache and a long, heavy beard that is starting to grey". 27 April 2007, “US holds ‘senior al-Qaeda figure’”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 2016-12-08

verb

1. To secure prey; to prey, as a vulture or harpy.

Etymology 3

Alteration of quarrel (“diamond-shaped piece of coloured glass forming part of a stained glass window; square tile”).

noun

1. A diamond-shaped tile or pane, often of glass or stone.
   The boyes playing at ſtooleball, by chaunce broke a quarry of the glaſſe, whereupon he complayned to the Towneſhip, and either had, or did his utmoſt to haue the poor boy whipt, […] 1615, Anthony Nixon, The Scovrge of Corruption. Or A Crafty Knave Needs No Broker, London: Printed at London, for Henry Gosson, and William Houlmes, and are to be sold at his shop in Popes-head Pallace, →OCLC, page 20
   A window towards the eaſt (whoſe fractured quarries proclaimed the ravages of time) admitted a dim, ſhadowy light, over the whole manſion. 1767 April, “a pen” [pseudonym], “The Adventures of a Pen”, in William Phorson, editor, The Berwick Museum, or, Monthly Literary Intelligencer. Being a View of the History, Politics, and Literature of the Times. Forming an Universal Repository of Amusement and Instruction, volume III, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberlnd: Printed by W. Phorson, →OCLC, page 155