Meaning of quarterstaff | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A wooden staff with an approximate length between 2 and 2.5 meters, sometimes tipped with iron, used as a weapon in rural England during the Early Modern period.
2. Fighting or exercise with a wooden staff of this sort.

Equivalents

Examples

“Name my accuſer ſaith he, or I defye thee Kemp at the quart ſtaffe.”

“[F]ew country people there are who do not love to see two sturdy fellows thwack and belabour each other with quarter-staff, single-stick, or fists.”

“He was very adept at quarterstaff.”

“First, several couples stood forth at quarterstaff, and so shrewd were they at the game, and so quickly did they give stroke and parry, that […]”

CEFR level