quartering

Meanings

1. present participle and gerund of quarter

1. A division into four parts.
2. The act of providing housing for military personnel, especially when imposed upon the home of a private citizen.
3. The method of capital punishment where a criminal is cut into four pieces.
4. The division of a shield containing different coats of arms into four or more compartments.
5. One of the different coats of arms arranged upon an escutcheon, denoting the descent of the bearer.
6. A series of quarters, or small upright posts.
7. The practice of docking 15 minutes' pay from a worker who arrived late (even by less than 15 minutes).
8. Searching for prey by traversing a space. From hunting for game, where dogs will run parallel to the wind in search of a scent, thereby 'quartering' the field.
9. A point on an arch calculated by measuring one quarter of the height along a line from the peak to the outer edge on the ground.

1. Coming from a point well abaft the beam, but not directly astern; said of waves or any moving object.
2. Coming from aft and to one side; having both a crosswind and tailwind component.
3. At right angles, as the cranks of a locomotive, which are in planes forming a right angle with each other.

Etymology

By surface analysis, quarter + -ing.