QUARRY (quarried)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: quarried   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does quarry mean? 

• QUARRY (noun)
  The noun QUARRY has 3 senses:

1. a person who is the aim of an attack (especially a victim of ridicule or exploitation) by some hostile person or influence

2. a surface excavation for extracting stone or slate

3. animal hunted or caught for food

  Familiarity information: QUARRY used as a noun is uncommon.

• QUARRY (verb)
  The verb QUARRY has 1 sense:

1. extract (something such as stones) from or as if from a quarry

  Familiarity information: QUARRY used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• QUARRY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who is the aim of an attack (especially a victim of ridicule or exploitation) by some hostile person or influence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fair game; prey; quarry; target

Context example:

the target of a manhunt

Hypernyms ("quarry" is a kind of...):

victim (an unfortunate person who suffers from some adverse circumstance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A surface excavation for extracting stone or slate

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

pit; quarry; stone pit

Context example:

a British term for 'quarry' is 'stone pit'

Hypernyms ("quarry" is a kind of...):

excavation (a hole in the ground made by excavating)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "quarry"):

chalk pit; chalkpit (a quarry for chalk)

gravel pit (a quarry for gravel)

Derivation:

quarry (extract (something such as stones) from or as if from a quarry)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Animal hunted or caught for food

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

prey; quarry

Hypernyms ("quarry" is a kind of...):

animal; animate being; beast; brute; creature; fauna (a living organism characterized by voluntary movement)

• QUARRY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they quarry    ... he / she / it quarries   
Past simple: quarried   
Past participle: quarried   
-ing form: quarrying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Extract (something such as stones) from or as if from a quarry

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Context example:

quarry marble

Hypernyms (to "quarry" is one way to...):

exploit; tap (draw from; make good use of)

"Quarry" entails doing...:

cut into; delve; dig; turn over (turn up, loosen, or remove earth)

Domain category:

quarrying (the extraction of building stone or slate from an open surface quarry)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence examples:

The men quarry the area for animals
The men quarry for animals in the area

Derivation:

quarrier (a man who works in a quarry)

quarry (a surface excavation for extracting stone or slate)

quarrying (the extraction of building stone or slate from an open surface quarry)

 Context examples 

What a hot and strong grasp he had! and how like quarried marble was his pale, firm, massive front at this moment!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Holding his club prepared to strike, he drew in on his cornered quarry.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Others demonstrate phenomenal stamina as they relentlessly run down quarry.

(Hound Breed, NCI Thesaurus)

Ah, sir, you speak of dogs, cried Aylward; but there are a pack of lusty hounds who are ready for any quarry, if they have but a good huntsman to halloo them on.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then he rushed down the stair, out through the open window, threw himself upon his face on the lawn, sprang up and into the room once more, all with the energy of the hunter who is at the very heels of his quarry.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A moment before I had been safe of all men’s respect, wealthy, beloved—the cloth laying for me in the dining-room at home; and now I was the common quarry of mankind, hunted, houseless, a known murderer, thrall to the gallows.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Buck had already dragged down a stray part-grown calf; but he wished strongly for larger and more formidable quarry, and he came upon it one day on the divide at the head of the creek.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I heard a noise just over my head, like the clapping of wings, and then began to perceive the woful condition I was in; that some eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak, with an intent to let it fall on a rock, like a tortoise in a shell, and then pick out my body, and devour it: for the sagacity and smell of this bird enables him to discover his quarry at a great distance, though better concealed than I could be within a two-inch board.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He stalked the quarry and found it to be a porcupine, standing upright against a tree and trying his teeth on the bark.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Their thin, shrill voices rose high above the roar of the flames and the crash of the masonry, like the yelping of a pack of wolves who see their quarry before them and know that they have well-nigh run him down.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)