English

Two couples doing a quadrille

Noun

quadrille ‎(plural quadrilles)

1. A dance originating in the mid-1700s with four couples forming a square, rather much like the modern square dance.
   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, part 2:

     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.

2. The music for this dance.
3. (card games) A Spanish trick-taking card game from the 1700s played with a 40-card deck.
   • 1812, Jane Austen, chapter 17, in Pride and Prejudice:

     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.

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

Translations

Verb

quadrille ‎(third-person singular simple present quadrilles, present participle quadrilling, simple past and past participle quadrilled)

1. (intransitive) To dance the quadrille.

Etymology 2

From French quadrillé.

Noun

quadrille ‎(plural quadrilles)

1. Quadrille ruled graph paper, quad paper.

Derived terms

• quadrille paper

Related terms

• quad
• quadrella

References

1. ↑ “quadrille” in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Online.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kad.ʁij/

Noun

quadrille m, f ‎(plural quadrilles)

1. (bullfighting) cuadrilla

Verb

quadrille

1. first-person singular present indicative of quadriller
2. third-person singular present indicative of quadriller
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of quadriller
4. first-person singular present subjunctive of quadriller
5. second-person singular imperative of quadriller