At Harvard and Yale Colleges, quarter-day, when the officers and instructors receive their quarterly salaries, was formerly observed as a holiday. One of the evils which prevailed among the students of the former institution, about the middle of the last century, was the "riotous disorders frequently committed on the _quarter-days_ and evenings," on one of which, in 1764, "the windows of all the Tutors and divers other windows were broken," so that, in consequence, a vote was passed that "the observation of _quarter-days_, in distinction from other days, be wholly laid aside, and that the undergraduates be obliged to observe the studying hours, and to perform the college exercises, on quarter-day, and the day following, as at other times."--_Peirce's Hist. Harv. Univ._, p. 216. QUESTIONIST. In the English universities, a name given to those who are in the last term of their college course, and are soon to be examined for honors or degrees.--_Webster_. In the "Orders agreed upon by the Overseers, at a meeting in Harvard College, May 6th, 1650," this word is used in the following sentence: "And, in case any of the Sophisters, _Questionists_, or Inceptors fail in the premises required at their hands,... they shall be deferred to the following year"; but it does not seem to have gained any prevalence in the College, and is used, it is believed, only in this passage. QUILLWHEEL. At the Wesleyan University, "when a student," says a correspondent, "'knocks under,' or yields a point, he says he _quillwheels_, that is, he acknowledges he is wrong." _R_. RAG. This word is used at Union College, and is thus explained by a correspondent: "To _rag_ and _ragging_, you will find of very extensive application, they being employed primarily as expressive of what is called by the vulgar thieving and stealing, but in a more extended sense as meaning superiority. Thus, if one declaims or composes much better than his classmates, he is said to _rag_ all his competitors." The common phrase, "_to take the rag off_," i.e. to excel, seems to be the form from which this word has been abbreviated. RAKE. At Williams and at Bowdoin Colleges, used in the phrase "to _rake_ an X," i.e. to recite perfectly, ten being the number of marks given for the best recitation. RAM. A practical joke. ---- in season to be just too late A successful _ram_ to perpetrate. _Sophomore Independent_, Union Coll., Nov. 1854. RAM ON THE CLERGY. At Middlebury College, a synonyme of the slang noun, "sell."