2. One of a religious sect founded by George {Fox}, of
Leicestershire, England, about 1650, -- the members of
which call themselves Friends. They were called Quakers,
originally, in derision. See {Friend}, n., 4.
Fox's teaching was primarily a preaching of
repentance . . . The trembling among the listening
crowd caused or confirmed the name of Quakers given
to the body; men and women sometimes fell down and
lay struggling as if for life. --Encyc. Brit.
3. (Zo["o]l.)
(a) The nankeen bird.
(b) The sooty albatross.
(c) Any grasshopper or locust of the genus ({Edipoda}; --
so called from the quaking noise made during flight.
{Quaker buttons}. (Bot.) See {Nux vomica}.
{Quaker gun}, a dummy cannon made of wood or other material;
-- so called because the sect of Friends, or Quakers, hold
to the doctrine, of nonresistance.
{Quaker ladies} (Bot.), a low American biennial plant
({Houstonia c[ae]rulea}), with pretty four-lobed corollas
which are pale blue with a yellowish center; -- also
called {bluets}, and {little innocents}.