Definition of "quaker"

The timid and trimming politics of some men of large property here have almost done their business for them. They have lost their influence, and grown obnoxious. The quakers and proprietarians together have little weight. New Jersey shows a noble ardor. Is there any thing in the air or soil of New York unfriendly to the spirit of liberty?

1776 June 24, John Adams, “[General Correspondence.] To William Tudor.”, in Charles Francis Adams [Sr.], editor, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, […], volume IX, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, published 1854, page 411

The demon of fanaticism was the shape which it took with us; and verily, what with religious republicans, harmonists, quakers, fifth-monarchy men, Presbyterians, and the reign of the saints upon earth, it needs the strong hand of a Cromwell to reduce the spiritual chaos to any sort of order.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter III, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 35

There is also a chancellor, — no, I mistake, — a chandler and green-grocer, with his hands full of warts; a hunch-backed cadger; a one-eyed cutler; a pudgy exciseman, who is often the worse for liquor, being fond of tippling and sotting in taps; a lubberly fuller; a limping, spoffish limner; a tawer, with a wen or a whelk on the tip of his nose; a stuttering plumber; a splenish quaker; a sexton, with teeth like the times of a harrow; a weazen-faced vintner; a snuffling undertaker’s mute, clothed in deep mourning, and talking of nothing but hearses and palls, dirges and passing-bells.

1857, T[héodore] Robertson, “[Charles Saville: […]] Chapter XXV”, in Synthèse de la langue anglaise (Charles Saville) : Texte anglais avec la traduction française en regard [Synthesis of the English Language (Charles Saville): English Text with Opposite French Translation], 2nd edition, Paris: Librairie française et anglaise de [French and English bookshop of] J.-H. Truchy; Ch. Leroy, successeur [successor]; […], page 240