Brewer's: Quarry

(A). The place where stone, marble, etc., are dug out and squared. (French, quarré, formed into square blocks.) (Tomlinson.)

Quarry

Prey. This is a term in falconry. When a hawk struck the object of pursuit and clung to it, she was said to “bind;” but when she flew off with it, she was said to “carry.” The “carry” or “quarry,” therefore, means the prey carried off by the hawk. It is an error to derive this word from the Latin quaero (to seek).

To tell the manner of it, Were on the quarry of these murdered deer To add the death of you.

Shakespeare: Macbeth, iv. 3.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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