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quails

Verb
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Fails in courage, falters, or shrinks back in fear; describes a character's sudden loss of resolve when confronted by danger.

Detailed Definition
Quail can mean to shrink back, lose heart, or weaken. In the poem, courage is personified as something that “quails and comes behind,” suggesting age’s decline.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Since courage quails and comes behind” uses quails to mean loses heart; “Even the boldest voice quails before the verdict” shows fear causing retreat; “At the thunder’s first crack, the dog quailed beneath the chair” provides a concrete action; “She does not quail before the dark” makes the verb a statement of resolve
Additional Notes
The verb is used in an older sense here, and readers may not immediately recognize it from everyday modern usage.; Found in the poem, A Lover's Lullaby by George Gascoigne
Also Known As
quail tremble recoil flinch
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