English▸ noun
(plural quarries)
a place, typically a large, deep pit, from which stone or other materials are or have been extracted: a limestone quarry.
▸ verb
( quarries, quarrying, quarried)
[with object] extract (stone or other materials) from a quarry: limestone is quarried for use in blast furnaces.
▪ cut into (rock or ground) to obtain stone or other materials:
the hillside had been quarried for many years
the papers have been extensively quarried by historians figurative.
– ORIGIN Middle English: from a variant of medieval Latin quareria, from Old French quarriere, based on Latin quadrum ‘a square’. The verb dates from the late 18th century.