an examination consisting of a few short questions
"The professor handed out a quick quiz to check if we remembered the key dates from last week's lecture."
An odd, puzzling or absurd person or thing.
"The sudden decision to cancel the entire project because a single comma was missing made him sound like a total quiz."
In plain English: A quiz is a short test used to check how much you know about something.
"The teacher handed out a short quiz on the grammar rules we learned last week."
To hoax; to chaff or mock with pretended seriousness of discourse; to make sport of, as by obscure questions.
"The professor decided to quiz the class on a nonsensical topic just to see how flustered they would get."
In plain English: To quiz someone means to ask them questions to test how much they know about something.
"The teacher will quiz us on the material tomorrow."
Usage: Use the verb quiz when you want to ask someone difficult or tricky questions in order to tease them or test their knowledge lightly. This usage is common for playful banter rather than formal examinations.
The word quiz appeared in English in the 1780s with an unknown origin, though it may have come from a dialectal form of whiz or referred to an odd person or hoax. Its meaning shifted over time from describing a trick or strange individual to the modern sense of asking questions for information.