A quarterstaff is a long stout pole used as a weapon. Fight with a quarterstaff, a quarterstaff bout, take up the quarterstaff.
It was the ordinary Englishman's weapon, cheap and legal where a sword was neither, and it appears in every Robin Hood story. It is held at a quarter of its length from one end, which is one explanation of the name.
1nounquarterstaffA long stout pole used as a weapon.
“The two men fought with quarterstaffs, cracking the heavy wooden poles against each other.”
quarterstaff is a weapon.
Quarter plus staff, attested from about 1550, perhaps from how the pole was held or how the wood was cleft.
From quarter + staff, attested since about 1550. Probably originally referred to a staff cut from the heartwood of a certain size of tree which was cleft into four parts, per the OED.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire