A Scottish dialectal word meaning quiet, used in some regional varieties of Scots. The form reflects historical vowel patterns in Scots English where standard 'quiet' becomes 'quate'. It is a regional pronunciation rendered into spelling rather than a separate word, and is rarely seen in writing outside dialect literature or specialized dictionaries of Scots. Rarely written; mostly heard in speech.
The wee one finally fell asleep, so keep it quate for a bit.
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Quate is a Scottish dialect word for quiet — the kind of spelling that captures exactly how it sounds in a Scottish accent, with the vowel drawn out and softened. It's the sort of word that belongs to regional speech traditions rather than written language, and you'll encounter it in literature, poetry, and conversations across Scotland. Telling someone to be quate carries the same meaning as telling them to hush, just with considerably more local colour.
The teacher shot him a look and said, 'Will you just be quate for five minutes?'
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(Scotland) quiet.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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