/ kwəʊt; NAmE kwoʊt/ verb , noun
■ verb
REPEAT EXACT WORDS
1.
quote (sth) (from sb/sth) | quote (sb) (as doing sth) to repeat the exact words that another person has said or written :
[ vn ]
He quoted a passage from the minister's speech.
to quote Shakespeare
The President was quoted in the press as saying that he disagreed with the decision.
'It will all be gone tomorrow.' ' Can I quote you on that? '
Don't quote me on this (= this is not an official statement) , but I think he is going to resign.
Quote this reference number in all correspondence.
[ v ]
She said, and I quote, 'Life is meaningless without love.'
[ v speech ]
'The man who is tired of London is tired of life,' he quoted.
—see also misquote
GIVE EXAMPLE
2.
to mention an example of sth to support what you are saying :
[ vnn ]
Can you quote me an instance of when this happened?
[also vn ] ➡ note at mention
GIVE PRICE
3.
quote (sb) (sth) (for sth / for doing sth) to tell a customer how much money you will charge them for a job, service or product :
[ vnn ]
They quoted us £300 for installing a shower unit.
[also vn , v ]
4.
[ vn ] quote sth (at sth) ( finance ) to give a market price for shares, gold or foreign money :
Yesterday the pound was quoted at $1.8285, unchanged from Monday.
5.
[ vn ] ( finance ) to give the prices for a business company's shares on a stock exchange :
Several football clubs are now quoted on the Stock Exchange.
•
IDIOMS
- quote ( ... unquote)
■ noun
( informal )
EXACT WORDS
1.
= quotation (1):
The essay was full of quotes.
PRICE
2.
= quotation (2):
Their quote for the job was way too high.
PUNCTUATION
3.
quotes [ pl. ] = quotation marks :
If you take text from other sources, place it in quotes .
••
WORD ORIGIN
late Middle English : from medieval Latin quotare , from quot how many, or from medieval Latin quota . The original sense was mark a book with numbers, or with marginal references , later give a reference by page or chapter , hence cite a text or person (late 16th cent.).