quilt

Etymology

From Middle English quilte, quylte, from Anglo-Norman quilte and Old French coilte, cuilte (compare French couette), from Latin culcita. Doublet of quoit.

noun

1. A bed covering consisting of two layers of fabric stitched together, with insulation between, often having a decorative design.
   My grandmother is going to sew a quilt.
2. A roll of material with sound-absorbing properties, used in soundproofing.
3. A quilted skirt worn by women.

verb

1. To construct a quilt.
2. To construct something, such as clothing, using the same technique.
   Get up, get up for shame, the blooming morne / Upon her wings presents the god unshorne. / See how Aurora throwes her faire / Fresh-quilted colours through the aire; / Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see / The dew bespangling herbe and tree. 1648, Robert Herrick, “Corinna’s Going a Maying”, in Hesperides, or The VVorks both Humane & Divine, London: Printed for John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield,[…], →OCLC; republished in The Poetical Works of Robert Herrick, London: William Pickering,[…], 1825, →OCLC, pages 91–92
3. (UK, slang, obsolete) To beat or thrash.
   I am glad, said Mr. Slick, that cussed critter, that schoolmaster, hasn't yet woke up. I'm most afeerd if he had aturned out afore we started, I should have quilted him, for that talk of his last night sticks in my crop considerable hard. 1884, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker, page 113