Definition of "quire" []

• A set of 24 or sometimes 25 sheets of paper of the same size and stock; one twentieth of a ream. (noun)
• A collection of leaves of parchment or paper, folded one within the other, in a manuscript or book. (noun)
• Archaic Variant of choir. (noun)

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.

• "The rooff of the quire is very Curious, Carv'd stone and soe thinn to ye Leads one might grasp it between thumb and finger, and yet so well fixt as to be very strong."
• "The quire is properly St Georges Chappel whose Rooff is very high and Carved very Curiously, all free stone, so is the rest of ye Church."
• "The Lanthorn in ye quire is vastly high and delicately painted and fine Carv'd worke all of wood, in it the bells used to be hung, five, the dimention of ye biggest was so much when they rung them it shooke ye quire so and ye Carv'd worke that it was thought unsafe, therefore they were taken down."