Search Result for "quick with child":

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Quick \Quick\, a. [Compar. Quicker; superl. Quickest.] [As. cwic, cwicu, cwucu, cucu, living; akin to OS. quik, D. kwik, OHG. quec, chec, G. keck bold, lively, Icel. kvikr living, Goth. qius, Lith. q[=y]vas, Russ. zhivoi, L. vivus living, vivere to live, Gr. bi`os life, Skr. j[imac]va living, j[imac]v to live. Cf. Biography, Vivid, Quitch grass, Whitlow.] 1. Alive; living; animate; -- opposed to dead or inanimate. [1913 Webster] Not fully quyke, ne fully dead they were. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] The Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. --2 Tim. iv. 1. [1913 Webster] Man is no star, but a quick coal Of mortal fire. -- Herbert. [1913 Webster] Note: In this sense the word is nearly obsolete, except in some compounds, or in particular phrases. [1913 Webster] 2. Characterized by life or liveliness; animated; sprightly; agile; brisk; ready. " A quick wit." --Shak. [1913 Webster] 3. Speedy; hasty; swift; not slow; as, be quick. [1913 Webster] Oft he to her his charge of quick return Repeated. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 4. Impatient; passionate; hasty; eager; eager; sharp; unceremonious; as, a quick temper. [1913 Webster] The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and signified that he was much offended. -- Latimer. [1913 Webster] 5. Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen. [1913 Webster] The air is quick there, And it pierces and sharpens the stomach. -- Shak. [1913 Webster] 6. Sensitive; perceptive in a high degree; ready; as, a quick ear. "To have an open ear, a quick eye." --Shak. [1913 Webster] They say that women are so quick. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster] 7. Pregnant; with child. --Shak. [1913 Webster] Quick grass. (Bot.) See Quitch grass. Quick match. See under Match. Quick vein (Mining), a vein of ore which is productive, not barren. Quick vinegar, vinegar made by allowing a weak solution of alcohol to trickle slowly over shavings or other porous material. Quick water, quicksilver water. Quick with child, pregnant with a living child. [1913 Webster] Syn: Speedy; expeditious; swift; rapid; hasty; prompt; ready; active; brisk; nimble; fleet; alert; agile; lively; sprightly. [1913 Webster]
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

QUICK WITH CHILD, or QUICKENING, med. jurisp. The motion of the foetus, when felt by the mother, is called quickening, and the mother is then said to be quick with child. 1 Beck's Med. Jurisp. 172; 1 Russ. on Cr. 553. 2. This happens at different periods of pregnancy in different women, and in different circumstances, but most usually about the fifteenth or sixteenth week after conception. 3 Camp. Rep. 97. 3. It is at this time that in law, life (q.v.) is said to commence. By statute, a distinction is made between a woman quick with child, and one who, though pregnant, is not so, when she is said to be privement enceinte. (q.v.) 1 Bl. Com. 129. 4. Procuring the abortion (q.v.) of a woman quick with child, is a misdemeanor when a woman is capitally convicted, if she be enceinte, it is said by Lord Hale, 2 P. C. 413, that unless they be quick with child, it is no cause for staying execution, but that if she be enceinte, and quick with child, she may allege that fact in retardationem executionis. The humanity of the law of the present day would scarcely sanction the execution of a woman whose pregnancy was undisputed, although she might not be quick with child; for physiologists, perhaps not without reason, think the child is a living being from the moment of conception. 1 Beck, Med. Jur. 291; Guy, Med. Jur. 86, 87.