I. quar ‧ ry 1 /ˈkwɒri $ ˈkwɔː-, ˈkwɑː-/ BrE AmE noun ( plural quarries )
[ Sense 1: Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: quarriere , from an unrecorded quarre 'square stone' , from Latin quadrum 'square' ]
[ Sense 2: Date: 1400-1500 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: cuiree 'inside parts of a killed animal given to the hunting dogs' , probably from Late Latin corata , from Latin cor 'heart' ]
1 . [countable] a place where large amounts of stone or sand are dug out of the ground:
a slate quarry
2 . [singular] the person or animal that you are hunting or chasing:
Briefly, the hunter and his quarry glared at each other.
II. quarry 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle quarried , present participle quarrying , third person singular quarries ) [transitive]
to dig stone or sand from a quarry
quarry something for something
The rock here is quarried for building stones.
quarry something from something
Chalk is quarried from the surrounding area.
—quarrying noun [uncountable]