quadrille

plural quadrilles

1. danceA dance originating in the mid-1700s with four couples forming a square, rather much like the modern square dance.

   There is plenty of company, consisting of young men and women, all very neatly dressed in white and black - a true Portuguese habit. Quadrilles, waltzes, polkas, and mazurkas are danced with great vigour and much skill.

   1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 48

   1 more example

   The movements of the other women were more or less similar to Tess's, the whole bevy of them drawing together like dancers in a quadrille at the completion of a sheaf by each, every one placing her sheaf on end against those of the rest, till a shock, or 'stitch' as it was here called, of ten or a dozen was formed.

   1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume II, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC

2. entertainmentThe music for this dance.

   There was ol' Mickey Coote Who played hard on his flute When the ladies lined up for a set He was tootin' with skill For each sparkling quadrille Though the dancers were fluther'd and bet

   c. 19th century, J. M. Crofts, “The Irish Rover”

3. card gamesA Spanish trick-taking card game from the 1700s played with a 40-card deck.

   It now first struck her that she was selected from among her sisters as worthy of being the mistress of Hunsford Parsonage, and of assisting to form a quadrille table at Rosings, in the absence of more eligible visitors.

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 17, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

4. A choreographed dressage ride, commonly performed to music, with a minimum of four horses.

present singular third person quadrilles · participle present quadrilling · participle past quadrilled · past quadrilled

1. intransitiveTo dance the quadrille.

   We quadrilled, waltzed, and conversed, in all of which my clever partner excelled; and her charms, combined with the excellent champagne I imbibed, fairly dazzled my imagination.

   1834, Arthur Courtenay, Autobiography and Letters of Arthur Courtenay, page 36

1. not comparableMarked with squares.

   He would write “one paragraph at time”, always beginning each novel in longhand – he favoured notebooks with quadrille lines (those little squares).

   2024 May 1, Lisa Allardice, “Brooklyn’s bard: Paul Auster’s tricksy fiction captivated a generation”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   Penknife, hand-lens, padlock key, marching compass and small cash went in his trouser pockets, leaving the tunic pockets for the little black quadrille notebook, pencil and pen, and the breast pockets for his breviary on one side and cigarettes and matches on the other.

   1961, Robert Francouer, The World of Teilhard, pages 28-29

plural quadrilles

1. Quadrille ruled graph paper, quad paper.

plural quadrilles

1. mathematicsA square tiling of the plane.