winter quarters

English

Noun

winter quarters

1. A place where a wild animal goes to live or hibernate in the winter; hibernacle.
   • 1889, R. P. Bledsoe, “Methods of Boll Weevil Control”, in Entomology, volume 1, page 5:

     In the fall, when the weather begins to get cool, the boll weevils leave the fields and go into winter quarters.

   • 1920, Alvin Howard Sanders, In Winter Quarters, from Dumbiedykes to Town and Back Again, page 114:

     The present one shows a lot more interest in paved streets and granite skyscrapers than in the dry leaves and rocks and underbrush where foxes, wolves and weasels once had winter quarters.

   • 1983, Rollin Harold Baker, Michigan mammals, page 134:

     In winter, evening bats depart for winter quarters and probably hibernate, although Lowery (1974) obtained records of active individuals in Louisiana in every month except February and December.

2. A place where a farmer, beekeeper, nurseryman, etc. moves their charges in the winter.
   • 1887, “Our Own Apiary”, in Canadian Bee Journal, volume 3, page 631:

     It is usually a month later than this, and sometimes two months later before we put them into winter quarters. Supposing some of our best bee-keepers place a few colonies in winter quarters now and just about the last couple of favorable days before they put the rest into winter quarters, place part of them out on their summer stands and give them a fly, leaving the remainder in, and see how they winter. We are pretty well convinced that we have been in the habit of setting bees into winter quarters too late.

   • 1912, W. A. Brown, “Winter Egg Production”, in Report of the W. Va. State Board of Agriculture for the Quarter Ending September 30, 1912, number 27:

     The pullets should be carefully selected and placed in their winter quarters early in October.

   • 1919, Sessional Papers of the Parliament of the Dominion of Canada, page 26:

     Whenever possible, during the fall and winter, the cows with calves by their side and yearlings were cut out of the main herd and placed in winter quarters where they have been fed daily.

   • 1992, Halina Heitz, Container Plants: For Patios, Balconies, and Window Boxes, page 25:

     The shorter the stay in their winter quarters which rarely offer optimal conditions – the less the plants will be weakened.

3. A more permanent location where a group that normally moves around, such as an army, circus, group of explorers, etc., takes time off to shelter for the winter.

   to go into winter quarters

   • 1904, Thomas M. Aldrich, The History of Battery A: First Regiment Rhode Island Light Artillery in the War to Preserve the Union, 1861-1865, page 270:

     On the 8th we changed our camp again into the woods near Brandy Station and Mountain Run, where we expected to go into winter quarters.

   • 1922, George Thornton Fleming, History of Pittsburgh and Environs, page 240:

     The regiment made camp at Tennallytown, and in October was ordered to Langley, Virginia, where it went into winter quarters.

   • 1968, Explorers and Settlers: Historic Places Commemorating the Early Exploration and Settlement of the United States, page 18:

     Moving northwest into present Mississippi, the explorer set up winter quarters.

   • 1982, William Mayne, Winter Quarters:

     While searching for winter quarters, a group of gypsies celebrates the birth of a new chief and discovers why a former chief disappeared.

   • 2014, Jan Young, Roadside Tidbits, page 35:

     Bridgeport, Connecticut, winter quarters of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, became its second home.

4. A place where someone spends one or more winters.
   • 1895 March 23, “The Invalid's Spring Programme”, in The Lancet, volume 1, number 3734, page 759:

     But the attempt which has often been made to prove that summer is as favourable a season as winter, and that invalids are extremely foolish to leave their winter quarters at the approach of spring, seems to us most injudicious.

   • 1957, World Health Organization, Report, page 27:

     Finally, and of greatest importance, are those groups of population which live a nomadic life and move from their winter quarters to summer quarters and back again regularly each year.

   • 1990, Donna C. Roper, Protohistoric Pawnee Hunting in the Nebraska Sand Hills, page 76:

     Conversely, winter residence away from the village may have involved only the occupation of winter quarters, without the period of mobile hunting which preceded it.

   • 2016, Alfred Austin, Jacson Keating, Lamia's Winter-Quarters (Alfred Austin):

     But since this project, to which my attention was called by that now universal source of information, advertisements, has been alluded to, do you mind telling me why you called our delightful sojourn in a Tuscan villa overlooking Florence my winter-quarters rather than the Poet's winter-quarters, or Veronica's, or, for that matter, even yours?

Translations

See also

• hibernacle

Further reading

• “winter quarters”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “winter quarters”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “winter quarters”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “winter quarters”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.