Quick with child

Quick \Quick\, a. [Compar. {Quicker}; superl. {Quickest}.] [As.
   cwic, cwicu, cwucu, cucu, living; akin to OS. quik, D. kwik,
   OHG. quec, chec, G. keck bold, lively, Icel. kvikr living,
   Goth. qius, Lith. q[=y]vas, Russ. zhivoi, L. vivus living,
   vivere to live, Gr. bi`os life, Skr. j[imac]va living,
   j[imac]v to live. Cf. {Biography}, {Vivid}, {Quitch grass},
   {Whitlow}.]
   1. Alive; living; animate; -- opposed to {dead} or
      {inanimate}.
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            Not fully quyke, ne fully dead they were. --Chaucer.
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            The Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and
            the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. --2 Tim.
                                                  iv. 1.
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            Man is no star, but a quick coal
            Of mortal fire.                       -- Herbert.
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   Note: In this sense the word is nearly obsolete, except in
         some compounds, or in particular phrases.
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   2. Characterized by life or liveliness; animated; sprightly;
      agile; brisk; ready. " A quick wit." --Shak.
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   3. Speedy; hasty; swift; not slow; as, be quick.
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            Oft he to her his charge of quick return
            Repeated.                             --Milton.
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   4. Impatient; passionate; hasty; eager; eager; sharp;
      unceremonious; as, a quick temper.
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            The bishop was somewhat quick with them, and
            signified that he was much offended.  -- Latimer.
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   5. Fresh; bracing; sharp; keen.
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            The air is quick there,
            And it pierces and sharpens the stomach. -- Shak.
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   6. Sensitive; perceptive in a high degree; ready; as, a quick
      ear. "To have an open ear, a quick eye." --Shak.
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            They say that women are so quick.     --Tennyson.
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   7. Pregnant; with child. --Shak.
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   {Quick grass}. (Bot.) See {Quitch grass}.

   {Quick match}. See under {Match}.

   {Quick vein} (Mining), a vein of ore which is productive, not
      barren.

   {Quick vinegar}, vinegar made by allowing a weak solution of
      alcohol to trickle slowly over shavings or other porous
      material.

   {Quick water}, quicksilver water.

   {Quick with child}, pregnant with a living child.
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   Syn: Speedy; expeditious; swift; rapid; hasty; prompt; ready;
        active; brisk; nimble; fleet; alert; agile; lively;
        sprightly.
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QUICK WITH CHILD, or QUICKENING, med. jurisp. The motion of the foetus, when 
felt by the mother, is called quickening, and the mother is then said to be 
quick with child. 1 Beck's Med. Jurisp. 172; 1 Russ. on Cr. 553. 
     2. This happens at different periods of pregnancy in different women, 
and in different circumstances, but most usually about the fifteenth or 
sixteenth week after conception. 3 Camp. Rep. 97. 
     3. It is at this time that in law, life (q.v.) is said to commence. By 
statute, a distinction is made between a woman quick with child, and one 
who, though pregnant, is not so, when she is said to be privement enceinte. 
(q.v.) 1 Bl. Com. 129. 
     4. Procuring the abortion (q.v.) of a woman quick with child, is a 
misdemeanor when a woman is capitally convicted, if she be enceinte, it is 
said by Lord Hale, 2 P. C. 413, that unless they be quick with child, it is 
no cause for staying execution, but that if she be enceinte, and quick with 
child, she may allege that fact in retardationem executionis. The humanity 
of the law of the present day would scarcely sanction the execution of a 
woman whose pregnancy was undisputed, although she might not be quick with 
child; for physiologists, perhaps not without reason, think the child is a 
living being from the moment of conception. 1 Beck, Med. Jur. 291; Guy, Med. 
Jur. 86, 87.