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Definition of "quaint" []

  • Charmingly odd, especially in an old-fashioned way: "Sarah Orne Jewett . . . was dismissed by one critic as merely a New England old maid who wrote quaint, plotless sketches of late 19th-century coastal Maine” ( James McManus). (adjective)
  • Unfamiliar or unusual in character; strange: quaint dialect words. See Synonyms at strange. (adjective)
  • Cleverly made; artful. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "quaint" in a sentence
  • "She confesses to Hicks in a letter in 1943 that she had abandoned what you call my 'quaint virginity cult' some time ago & haven't regretted it for one second."
  • "PILGRIM: Bill, Bush nominee Alberto Gonzales is in the spotlight because of a memo he wrote to his White House legal counsel talking about new definitions of torture and the Geneva Convention provisions which he called quaint and talking about special people for war on terror, special rules for war on terror."
  • "Covert, they read, in quaint carved letters under the eave of the porch."