quarry

1. (transitive) To obtain (or mine) stone by extraction from a quarry.Examples: "The incloſing of this country might alſo be effected, were the landlord to quarry the ſtones, and build the walls at his expence, and the tenant to carry the materials, and pay intereſt for the money advanced by the landlord."; "The stone of which this town and church was built, is somewhat of the nature of "rotten limestone,"—is quite light in color,—quarries out regularly and easily,—is soft, when first quarried, but becomes hard on exposure to the air."; "In Lexington, which was just then establishing itself as the principal town in Kentucky, he found work quarrying stone for a tavern keeper. Once again, the wages were low, and his employer "strove by every means in his power to take advantage of me.""Synonyms: minetransitive

2. (figuratively, transitive) To extract or slowly obtain by long, tedious searching.Examples: "They quarried out new, interesting facts about ancient Egypt from old papyri."; "The second part of Aristotle's work requires little description. […] It has been largely quarried by the grammarians and lexicographers of later ages, from whom modern students of Athenian antiquities have derived their information; […]"; "They will be guided and inspired by such utterance as Parrington's diagnosis of Sinclair Lewis, where he quarries out a vein of his own enduring liberalism."Synonyms: dig, dig up, unearthfigurativelytransitive

1. (uncountable, obsolete) A part of the entrails of a hunted animal, given to the hounds as a reward.Examples: "Quarry, among hunters, is ſometimes uſed for part of the viſcera of the beaſt taken; given by way of reward to the hounds."obsoleteuncountable

2. (uncountable) An animal, often a bird or mammal, which is hunted.Examples: "Is it not our very Caſe now, that when our Souls, Good-Names, Bodies and Fortunes are at Stake, we muſt be running out at Check, after every Crow, Buzzard, or Jack-daw that comes in the way, and leave the main Chance at laſt at Six and Seven? Nay, and here's this more in't too, that the Quarry would not be worth the taking up neither, if we could Catch it; beſide, that it flies away ſtill before us, and is never to be Overtaken."; "Nofi Raranta, 37, the town's main clove dealer, is also the top hunter, employing about a hundred men who comb the surrounding forests for quarry."uncountable

3. (countable) An object of search or pursuit.Examples: "In a verſe, when a worde of three ſillables cannot thruſt in but ſidelings, to joynt him even, we are oftentimes faine to borrowe ſome leſſer quarry of elocution from the Latine, alwaies retaining this for a principle, that a leake of indeſinence , as a leake in a ſhip, muſt needly be ſtopt with what matter ſoever."; "Meanwhile his Ladie, which this outrage ſaw, / Whileſt they together for the quarrey ſtroue, / Into the couert did her ſelfe withdrw, / And cloſely hid her ſelfe within the groue."; "A US State Department website advertised a reward of up to $1m (£500,000) for the capture of its quarry [Abdul Hadi al Iraqi], who was described as 5ft 11in (180cm) tall, with a pale complexion, "a moustache and a long, heavy beard that is starting to grey"."countable