Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A game played by four persons with forty cards, which are the remainder of the pack after the tens, nines, and eights are discarded.
  • noun A square dance for four couples, consisting regularly of five parts or movements, each complete in itself — namely, le pantalon, Pété, la poule, la trénise (or la pastourelle), and la finale.
  • noun Any single set of dancers or maskers arranged in four sets or groups.
  • noun Any square dance resembling the quadrille.
  • noun Music for such square dances.
  • Same as quadrillé.
  • To play at quadrille.
  • To dance quadrilles.
  • noun A small squadron; a cluster of richly caparisoned horsemen at a tournament or mounted fête. They were distinguished by different colors.
  • Divided or marked off into squares; having a pattern composed of small squares: said of textile fabrics, writing-papers ruled with lines crossing at right angles, and the like.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A game played by four persons with forty cards, being the remainder of an ordinary pack after the tens, nines, and eights are discarded.
  • adjective (Art) Marked with squares, generally by thin lines crossing at right angles and at equal intervals.
  • noun A dance having five figures, in common time, four couples of dancers being in each set.
  • noun The appropriate music for a quadrille.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Quadrille ruled graph paper, quad paper.
  • noun A dance originating from the mid 1700s with four dancers forming a square, rather much like the modern square dance.
  • noun A card game from the 1700s.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a square dance of 5 or more figures for 4 or more couples
  • noun music for dancing the quadrille

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French quadrillé.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French, in sense of “group of knights”, from Spanish cuadrilla, diminutive of cuadra ("square") (compare also cuadra ("four")), from Latin quadra.

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Examples

  • I think you'll agree there's a certain likeness in the bearing, the handsome features and noble mien, his quadrille is second to none and of course his manners are on the whole impeccable.

    45 entries from March 2008 2008

  • A quadrille is a very humdrum performance nowadays to those who know nothing so delightful as the wild monotony of the round dance.

    Kirsteen: The Story of a Scotch Family Seventy Years Ago Margaret 1891

  • The quadrille is a stately and a conversational dance.

    Manners and Social Usages Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood

  • Sidsall recalled the quadrille he had led her through at Lacy's party; he had been a perfect partner, at once light and firm.

    Java Head Joseph Hergesheimer 1917

  • The quadrille was a stately spectacular display, in which splendid dress and stirring music and the effects of rhythmic motion had been brought freely into play for the delight of the beholders.

    Miss Bretherton Humphry Ward 1885

  • When all had been served, they lingered around the surgeon's quarters, talking with each other and laughing, others formed on for a stag quadrille, and danced, while a nigger fiddled.

    How Private George W. Peck Put Down The Rebellion or, The Funny Experiences of a Raw Recruit - 1887 1878

  • Daniel Hannan set the tone, describing the posturing as the "quadrille" and latterly, Fraser Nelson on the Spectator blog picked up the theme, with a short but pointed post, headed: "How Barroso and Brown could stitch up the press".

    Archive 2007-10-01 Richard 2007

  • Daniel Hannan set the tone, describing the posturing as the "quadrille" and latterly, Fraser Nelson on the Spectator blog picked up the theme, with a short but pointed post, headed: "How Barroso and Brown could stitch up the press".

    And so it goes on, and on and on… Richard 2007

  • Daniel Hannan does a fairly decent analysis of the state of play on the treaty "quadrille" this morning in Brussels Journal, the oh so predictable and tedious posturing of member states some of them as we lead up to the IGC and its equally predictable outcome.

    Archive 2007-10-01 Richard 2007

  • Daniel Hannan does a fairly decent analysis of the state of play on the treaty "quadrille" this morning in Brussels Journal, the oh so predictable and tedious posturing of member states some of them as we lead up to the IGC and its equally predictable outcome.

    "Substantially equivalent" Richard 2007

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