quad

plural quads

1. Clipping of quadrat.
   1. obsoleteletterpress typographyA blank metal block used to fill short lines of type.First known use 18th to 19th century

      Other larger spaces – known as quads – were used to space out lines.

      2005, Phil Baines, Andrew Haslam, Type & Typography, 2nd edition, page 91

      2 more examples

      “Quadrats, sir. We call 'em quads.” […] Quads are the spaces left between the paragraphs that come white on the paper. If you look here, at this page that is set-up, you will see that they are deeper than the spaces left between the words and letters—regular little trenches.

      1853 April 16, Charles Dickens, Household Words, number 160, page 148

      Horizontal spacing is further divided into multiples and fractions of the em. The multiples are called quads. The fractions are called spaces.

      1979, Marshall Lee, Bookmaking, page 110

      Synonyms: em quad, em space, quadrat

   2. obsoleteslangmediaA joke used to fill long days of setting type.First known use 18th to 19th century
   3. obsoletephototypesetting and digital typesettingmediaA keyboard command which aligns text with the left or right margin, or centred between them. In combination, as quad left, quad right, or quad centre.First known use 18th to 19th century
2. informalA quadrangle (quadrangular courtyard).First known use 1780s

   The teenage couple is lounging on the lawn outside a high school, taking advantage of a free period between classes in that age-old way: making out on the quad.

   2021 November 21, Nicole Sperling, “How Do You Make Teen Comedies Today? Buy a High School.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   2 more examples

   Gilt-backed books on gilded shelf or table caught the eye, and as you turned your glance from the luxurious interiors to the well-shorn lawn in the Quad with its classic fountain also gilded by sunbeams, the mental vision saw plainly written over the whole "The Union of Luxury and Learning."

   1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 38

   Every spring, the quad on the University of Washington (UW) campus transforms from a peaceful green space to a bustling habitat for hundreds of shuttering cameras, families, and onlookers.

   2014, Walker Orenstein, for Norwest Asian Weekly, Cherry trees from Japan to grace UW campus

3. colloquialdatedA horse, from colloquial or humorous quadruped specifically for horse.First known use 1850s

   The quads is all right, barrin’ that the bay is blind o’ the left eye, and the chestnut a bit weak in the off fore.

   1934, John Buchan, The Free Fishers, page 258

4. Something that is quadruple (four times) the usual amount, number, etc.
   1. A poster advertising a cinematic film release, measuring forty by thirty inches, four times the area of crown paper.First known use c. 1910
   2. hobbiesA quadruple, a jump with four revolutions in the air.
   3. A serving of four shots of espresso; (attributive) containing four shots of espresso.

      A grande iced quad latte with milk is $6.65 + tax, whereas a quad over ice with milk added at the self-serve station is only $3.65 + tax

      2023 May 7, Josh, “How to Order a Quad Over Ice + Fun Alternatives”, in Angry Espresso, archived from the original on 28 May 2023

   4. A skate with four wheels.

      These are the quads I recommend for newbies.

      2018, Elicia Hyder, Lights Out Lucy: Roller Derby 101

      1 more example

      When you can skate, inline, ice, quads are all equally enjoyable as long as they are of good enough quality.

      2014, Brigitte Legendre, A Skater's Business, page 16

5. abbreviationclippingClipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).First known use 1890s

   The Pair, Triples, and Quads can be formed with both Honor and Suit Tiles.

   1991, Alain Gelbman, Mah Jong: One Step at a Time, page 7

   2 more examples

   Object of the game: To use up all the tiles by playing them in quads. A quad is four consecutive numbers running in ascending or descending order, and played in a straight line.

   1999, Jennifer Kelley, Great Book of Domino Games, page 70

   Each person on the team could be exclusively responsible for taking care of and keeping records for one set of four plants (a quad).

   2002, Experiments with Plants: teacher’s guide, page 18

   1. businessA group of four insulated wires twisted together to form two circuits of two wires each.
   2. broadcastingA quad antenna, a directional radio antenna consisting of multiple loop antennas.
   3. informalA quadruplet, one of four babies born during the same birth.

      My husband Jim was home[…] and so were my children: Samantha, 4, and the quadruplets, Zachary, Danielle, Amanda, and Elisabeth. The quads were eighteen months old and in their usual fine form — singing, banging, pushing each other, and toddling into impossible places.

      1980, Linda Schreiber, Marathon Mom: The Wife and Mother Running Book, page 18

   4. board gamesA kind of round-robin tournament between four players, where each participant plays every other participant once.
   5. MormonismThe Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price bound in a single volume.
   6. attributiveslangcard gamesOf or relating to quads (four of a kind).

      Both players had four of a kind. A had quad fours; B had quad deuces.

      2001, Alfred Alvarez, Poker: Bets, Bluffs and Bad Beats, page 90

6. informalThe quadriceps muscle.First known use 1950s

   Aesthetics aside, if you train your quads while neglecting your hamstrings, you're setting yourself up for an eventual injury.

   2010, Adam Garett, “Fried Hams”, in Reps!, 17:23

7. informalQuadruplex videotape.First known use 1960s

   The high band color quadruplex format is recommended for the following reasons: 1. Quad is now the accepted industry standard world-wide with over 90% of all television broadcast operations using this format for video recording.

   1975, [US] House Subcommittee on Communications, Telecommunications Facilities and Demonstration Act of 1975, page 11

8. informalA quadriplegic person.First known use 1970s

   The worse was the realization that this was my new reality. This too was Bill's debut as a husband of a quad and his first social gathering since June 22.

   2005, Nancy H. Blose, Behind the Curtain: Living as a Quadriplegic, Lulu Publishing, published 2015, →ISBN, pages 74–75

9. A unit of energy equivalent to a quadrillion BTU (10¹⁵ BTU).First known use 1970s
10. A small off-road four-wheeled powered vehicle, usually used for recreation or farm work.First known use 1980s

    Cad was a ferocious driver of a quad, much given to wheelies, jumps and stunts in general.

    2000, Sam Llewellyn, Wonder Dog, page 20

    Synonyms: quad bike, four-wheeler

11. informalcomputer graphicsA quadrilateral.First known use 1980s

    System Rasterization Primitives • Polygons • Triangles, Trapezoids, Quads

    1989, ACM SIGGRAPH '89 Course Notes, New York: Association for Computing Machinery, page 48

    2 more examples

    schemes have appeared which generate good results when applied to meshes which contain both triangular and quadrilateral regions. These kinds of schemes turn out to be very useful for modelling animations, because there, in symmetric (e.g. cylindrical) areas, quads and vertices with valence 4 are preferred

    2006, Koen Beets, Johan Claes, Frank Van Reeth, “Optimizing Mesh Construction for Quad/Triangle Schemes”, in Hans-Peter Seidel, Tomoyuki Nishita, Qunsheng Peng, editors, Advances in Computer Graphics, page 711

    Tris and quads have different areas of functionality. In real-time graphics, tris are the norm because they provide the most basic geometric representations of planes.

    2010, Tony Mullen, Claudio Andaur, Blender Studio Projects: Digital Movie-Making, page 91

12. informalA quadcopter.First known use 2000s

    Today you can buy quadrotor drones—also known as quadcopters—of just about any kind, for just about any price. The extremely wealthy can buy gold-plated quads, and the rest of us can buy tiny plastic ones.

    2017 May 19, Ed Darack, “A Brief History of Quadrotors”, in Air & Space Magazine

13. informalA quadrupel beer.

    So what’s the beer for this great dish? You guessed it — Belgian quad. “I don’t usually pair the same beer with the one used in the recipe,” Bill explains, “but drinking a great quad with this dish really elevates both the food and the beer in a special way.”

    2012, Bruce Glassman, Brew Food: Great Beer-inspired Appetizers, Main Courses, and Desserts, page 142

1. not comparableQuadruple, four times the usual size or quantity.First known use 1880s

   Around the corner waits a Quad Damage rune, which you can activate before returning to the Teleporter and heading for the Gold Key.

   1998, Kip Ward, Mike van Mantgem, Axel Floyd, Quake for Nintendo 64 (Prima’s Unauthorized Game Secrets), page 23

   3 more examples

   Printing Plant Machinery, Type, Material, Fittings, Stock-in-Trade, Paper, &c., including QUAD-CROWN CYLINDER MACHINE, With Flyers, Riders, &c., by Miller & Richard.

   1896, Sunderland. Re Mawson, Phillips & Co., Ld., in Liquidation

   With Mali-400 MP4 GPU, 2GB of RAM and a quad-core Cortex-A9 processor, this tablet is more than capable to handle even the latest graphics intense games

   2014, Brian Johnson, 21 Best Tablets for You This Holiday Season of 2014, page 44

   SeaStar Solutions, which makes systems for twin- and triple-outboard powered boats, now offers its Optimus electronic power steering (EPS) for single- and quad-powered boats.

   2015 May, Chris Woodward, “Yamaha 190 FSH”, in Sport Fishing, volume 30, page 85

2. not comparablepaperQuadrille, marked with squares.

present singular third person quads · participle present quadding · participle past quadded · past quadded

1. intransitivetransitiveletterpress typographyTo fill spaces in a line of type with quads. Also quad out.
2. intransitivetransitivephototypesetting and digital typesettingmediaTo align text with the left or right margin, or centre it.
3. transitiveTo twist four individually insulated conductors together as two pairs of twisted wires that are then twisted together.

   Can you "quad" the cable?

   1901, Report of the Industrial Commission on Transportation, page 232

   2 more examples

   The star quadding of the wires ensures a reduction in the diameters of cables and their weight […]

   1961, Telecommunications, page 690

   The conductors in quadded cables are tinned and may also be enameled.

   1965, Telephone Cable Splicing: Cable Terminations and Cable Repairs, United States. Department of the Army, page 906

4. intransitiveTo ride a quad bike.

   visibility was perfect and mud was plentiful for our quadding adventure.

   2006 April 27, Christopher Thrall, “There’s a mud-eating grin to be seen after every quadding adventure”, in Vue Weekly, Edmonton, page 31

1. informalAn informal strategic forum between the United States, Japan, Australia, and India, focused on Asian security matters.

   China has seen it as a threat to its dominance in the region, saying the Quad is a U.S. attempt to create an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization directly aimed at counterbalancing its interests.

   2020 October 3, Pranshu Verma, “In Wake of Recent India-China Conflict, U.S. Sees Opportunity”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: QSD

2. broadlyA grouping of the United States, Japan, Australia, and India.

   But coordination in shifts in rates by global groupings like the Group of 7, the Indo-Pacific “Quad” and perhaps the Shangri-La Dialogue in Asia would send a powerful message.

   2022 October 4, Adam Tooze, “The First Global Deflation Has Begun, and It’s Unclear Just How Painful It Will Be”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

1. UKhistoricalgovernmentA coalition committee that resolved party disputes during the Cameron–Clegg coalition.