quiet

ca-adj

quiet (feminine quieta, masculine plural quiets, feminine plural quietes)

quieta (feminine)
quiets (masculine plural)
quietes (feminine plural)

Borrowed from Latin quiētus. Compare Old Catalan quet, which was inherited. First attested in 1490.


quiet

I can't hear the music; it is too quiet.

On the light streets, better streetcleaners, more trees, more police, and quieter buses were the most popular improvements, followed by cutting down the number of cars and improving children's play space.

1982, Donald Appleyard, Livable Streets, page 98:

Before long, the unsuspecting salesman was earnestly pitching him "the quietest noisemaker on the market."

1999 May 4, William Safire, “Essay; The Quiet Noisemaker”, in The New York Times:

With little or no sound; free of disturbing noise.

the sea was quiet

a quiet night at home

all quiet on the Western front

The traffic was quiet for a Monday morning.

Business was quiet for the season.

It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face.

1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 8, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

He's a very quiet man usually, but is very chatty after a few beers.

Not talking much or not talking loudly; reserved.

a quiet dress

quiet colours

a quiet movement

a quiet install

(software) Requiring little or no interaction.

en-adj

quiet (comparative quieter or more quiet, superlative quietest or most quiet)

quieter (comparative)
more quiet (comparative)
quietest (superlative)
most quiet (superlative)

From Middle English quiete, from Old French quiet (adjective) and quiete (noun), from Latin quiētus, past participle of quiēscere (“to keep quiet, rest”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“rest”). Doublet of coy, quit, quite, and quietus. Largely displaced native English still in the sense of "with little or no sound".


quiet

Can you quiet your child? He’s making lots of noise.

The umpire quieted the crowd so the game could continue in peace.

For thou haſt created us for thy ſelfe, and our heart cannot be quieted till it may fine repoſe in thee.

1631, Saint Augustine, “He Admires Gods Majesty, and is Inflamed with a Deepe Desire of Praising Him”, in William Watts, transl., Saint Augustines Confessions Translated: […], London: […] Iohn Norton, for Iohn Partridge […], →OCLC, book 1, paragraph 1, page 2:

(transitive) To cause (someone or something) to become quiet.

When you quiet, we can start talking.

en-verb

quiet (third-person singular simple present quiets, present participle quieting, simple past and past participle quieted)

quiets (present singular third-person)
quieting (participle present)
quieted (participle past)
quieted (past)

успокоявам

to cause (someone or something) to become quiet


quiet

There was a strange quiet in the normally very lively plaza.

We need a bit of quiet before we can start the show.

The absence of movement; stillness, tranquility.

The King & his Nobles thinke they may ſleepe in quiet,
Now they haue giuen vs a little holy water at the Court,
But thers no ſuch matter, we be no ſuch fooles,
To be bobd out with words and after come to hanging: […]

1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act III:

The absence of disturbance or trouble; peace, security.


quiet

Quiet! The children are sleeping.


quiet

Alors en regardant, en écoutant Mme de Guermantes, je voyais, prisonnier dans la perpétuelle et quiète après-midi de ses yeux, un ciel d’Ile-de-France ou de Champagne se tendre […].

1921, Marcel Proust, Le Côté de Guermantes, section II:

So when I watched and listened to Mme de Guermantes, I saw, a prisoner in the perpetual and placid afternoon of her eyes, an Ile-de-France or Champagne sky stretching out…

(rare, literary) tranquil, peaceful, placid

fr-adj

quiet (feminine quiète, masculine plural quiets, feminine plural quiètes)

quiète (feminine)
quiets (masculine plural)
quiètes (feminine plural)

Inherited from Old French quiete (13th c.), borrowed from Latin quiētus. The masculine quiet is a Middle French backformation. Doublet of inherited coi and the earlier borrowing quitte.


quiet

head

quiet m (feminine singular quieta, masculine plural quiets, feminine plural quietas)

quieta (feminine singular)
quiets (masculine plural)
quietas (feminine plural)