Home UK English q.t.

Meaning of q.t. in English:

q.t.

noun

(also QT)
‘We used to keep the inhalers in our coat pockets, on the q.t.’
  • ‘The guns are on the q.t. now, thank God for that, and we hope and pray that they do not start again.’
  • ‘‘This was on the q.t. and simply part of the graft that goes with the job,’ he wrote to his mother.’
  • ‘The 1949 version has the great Joan Bennett in the role of the mother doing whatever it takes to keep a murder on the q.t.’

Phrases

    on the q.t.
    informal

    • Secretly; stealthily.

      • ‘Brenda nipped round on the q.t’
      • ‘please, I beg you, regard this for the present as on the q.t’

Origin

Late 19th century abbreviation of quiet.