Nominal Forms
Infinitive: to quiz
Participle: quizzed
Gerund: quizzing
Cognates
-
Indicative
Present
| I | quiz |
| you | quiz |
| he;she;it | quizzes |
| we | quiz |
| you | quiz |
| they | quiz |
Perfect
| I | have quizzed |
| you | have quizzed |
| he;she;it | has quizzed |
| we | have quizzed |
| you | have quizzed |
| they | have quizzed |
Past
| I | quizzed |
| you | quizzed |
| he;she;it | quizzed |
| we | quizzed |
| you | quizzed |
| they | quizzed |
Pluperfect
| I | had quizzed |
| you | had quizzed |
| he;she;it | had quizzed |
| we | had quizzed |
| you | had quizzed |
| they | had quizzed |
Future
| I | will quiz |
| you | will quiz |
| he;she;it | will quiz |
| we | will quiz |
| you | will quiz |
| they | will quiz |
Future Perfect
| I | will have quizzed |
| you | will have quizzed |
| he;she;it | will have quizzed |
| we | will have quizzed |
| you | will have quizzed |
| they | will have quizzed |
Subjunctive
Present
| I | quiz |
| you | quiz |
| he;she;it | quiz |
| we | quiz |
| you | quiz |
| they | quiz |
Perfect
| I | have quizzed |
| you | have quizzed |
| he;she;it | have quizzed |
| we | have quizzed |
| you | have quizzed |
| they | have quizzed |
Imperfect
| I | quizzed |
| you | quizzed |
| he;she;it | quizzed |
| we | quizzed |
| you | quizzed |
| they | quizzed |
Pluperfect
| I | had quizzed |
| you | had quizzed |
| he;she;it | had quizzed |
| we | had quizzed |
| you | had quizzed |
| they | had quizzed |
Conditional
Present
| I | would quiz |
| you | would quiz |
| he;she;it | would quiz |
| we | would quiz |
| you | would quiz |
| they | would quiz |
Perfect
| I | would have quizzed |
| you | would have quizzed |
| he;she;it | would have quizzed |
| we | would have quizzed |
| you | would have quizzed |
| they | would have quizzed |
Imperative
| you | quiz |
| we | Let's quiz |
| you | quiz |
Verbs conjugated like 'quiz'
bus,
embus,
hocus,
hocus-pocus,
nonplus,
quiz,
debus,
dis,
fiz,
non-plus,
nonpros,
off-gas,
offgas,
poz,
pus,
regas,
rez,
spaz,
Verbs similar to 'quiz'
quid,
quip,
quit,
buz,
buzz,
equip,
fiz,
friz,
futz,
fuzz,
Additional Information
Phrasal Verbs
Etymology
1. Attested since the 1780s, of unknown origin.
2. * The Century Dictionary suggests it was originally applied to a popular toy, from a dialectal variant of whiz.
3. * The Random House Dictionary suggests the original sense was "odd person" (circa 1780).
4. * Others suggest the meaning "hoax" was original (1796), shifting to the meaning "interrogate" (1847) under the influence of question and inquisitive.
5. * Some say without evidence it was invented by a late-18th-century Dublin theatre proprietor who bet he could add a new nonsense word to the English language; he had the word painted on walls all over the city, and the morning after, everyone was talking about it (The Pre-Victorian Drama in Dublin).
6. * Others suggest it was originally quies (1847), Latin qui es? (who are you?), traditionally the first question in oral Latin exams. They suggest that it was first used as a noun from 1867, and the spelling quiz first recorded in 1886, but this is demonstrably incorrect.
7. * A further derivation, assuming that the original sense is "good, ingenuous, harmless man, overly conventional, pedantic, rule-bound man, square; nerd; oddball, eccentric", is based on a column from 1785 which claims that the origin is a jocular translation of the Horace quotation vir bonus est quis as "the good man is a quiz" at Cambridge.
Sample Sentences
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he quizzed unmercifully all the men in the room— [1850, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis:]
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'Now, Puddock, back him up—encourage your man,' said Devereux, who took a perverse pleasure in joking; 'tell him to flay the lump, splat him, divide him, and cut him in two pieces—'
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It was a custom of the corps to quiz Puddock about his cookery […] [1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:]
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He quizzed the suspect for around half an hour.
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This week members return to the chamber to quiz the government on the Zimbabwe election, teacher shortages, backlog of asylum applications and improving the system for dementia diagnosis. [2023 August 31, “What's on in the Lords 4-7 September”, in UK Parliament:]
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Rail Minister Lord Hendy was quizzed by the same MPs at an earlier hearing. He maintained that the Bill gave Mayors "much enhanced power" and preserved the existing processes by which rail services can be devolved. "The intention, more widely, is to work collaboratively with all devolved leaders to meet local needs," he said. "It has to be tempered by the reality, which is that the railway network is not generally consistent with mayoral boundaries. […]". [2026 March 18, Peter Plisner, “Will devolution deliver real local control?”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 47:]