quart
n. countablen. a unit for measuring liquids that is equal to about one liter. In the US, four quarts make one gallon.
n. a unit of liquid capacity equal to a quarter of a gallon or two pints. The US liquid quart is approximately 0.946 litres, while the UK imperial quart is approximately 1.136 litres.
I need to buy a quart of milk for the recipe.
The mechanic added a quart of oil to the engine to bring it up to the recommended level.
While the metric system is standard in scientific contexts, many American consumers still purchase milk and motor oil by the quart due to long-standing regional measurement traditions.
From Middle English quart, quarte, from Old French quarte, carte, from Latin quartus (“one-fourth”). Cognate with Spanish cuarto (“quarter; room, quarters”).
From Middle English quarte, querte, from Old Norse kyrt, kvirt, neuter of Old Norse kyrr, kvirr (“quiet, still, peaceful”), from Proto-Germanic kwerruz (“calm, satisfied, pacified”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₂- (“heavy”). Cognate with Scots quert, quart (“alive, in good health, sound”), Scots querty (“vivacious, active, in good spirits”), Danish kvær (“quiet”), Norwegian Nynorsk kvar, kvær, kverr (“still, quiet”), Icelandic kyrr (“still, calm, unmoving”).
Dialectal alteration of thwart.
Commonly used in the United States; less frequent in the UK and other countries that have fully adopted the metric system.