quad

See also: Quad and quad-

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kwɑd/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kwɒd/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒd

Etymology 1

From Latin.

Noun

quad (plural quads)

1. A serving of four shots of espresso.
2. (chess) A kind of round-robin tournament between four players, where each participant plays every other participant once.
3. (Mormonism) The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price bound in a single volume.
4. A poster, measuring forty by thirty inches, advertising a cinematic film release.

Adjective

quad (not comparable)

1. Having four shots of espresso.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• quad bike

See also

• quadr-, quadri-
• quadru-
• quin

Etymology 2

Clippings.

Noun

quad (plural quads)

1. (informal) A quadrangle (quadrangular courtyard).
   • 1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 38:

     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."

   • 2014, Walker Orenstein; for Norwest Asian Weekly, Cherry trees from Japan to grace UW campus‎^[1]:

     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.

   • 2021 November 21, Nicole Sperling, “How Do You Make Teen Comedies Today? Buy a High School.”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     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.

2. (informal) A quadruplet (infant).
3. (informal, computer graphics) A quadrilateral.
   • 2010, Tony Mullen; Claudio Andaur, Blender Studio Projects: Digital Movie-Making, page 91:

     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.

4. (informal) The quadriceps muscle.
   • 2010, Adam Garett, “Fried Hams”, in Reps!, 17:23:

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

5. (informal) A quadriplegic person.
   • 2005, Nancy H. Blose, Behind the Curtain: Living as a Quadriplegic, Lulu Publishing, published 2015, →ISBN, page 74–75:

     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.

6. (informal) Quadruplex videotape.
7. (informal) A quadrupel beer.
8. (informal) A quadcopter.
   • 2017 May 19, Ed Darack, “A Brief History of Quadrotors”, in Air & Space Magazine‎^[3]:

     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.

9. A skate with four wheels.
   • 2018, Elicia Hyder, Lights Out Lucy: Roller Derby 101:

     These are the quads I recommend for newbies.

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

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

10. (skating) Clipping of quadruple (“kind of jump in figure skating”).

Derived terms

Derived terms

• quaddie
• quad ruled
• quad strip

Adjective

quad (not comparable)

1. (poker slang) Of or relating to quads.

Translations

quadrangle — see quadrangle

quadruplet — see quadruplet

quadrilateral — see quadrilateral

Verb

quad (third-person singular simple present quads, present participle quadding, simple past and past participle quadded)

1. (transitive) To twist four individually insulated conductors together as two pairs of twisted wires that are then twisted together.
   • 1901, Report of the Industrial Commission on Transportation, page 232:

     Can you "quad" the cable?

   • 1961, Telecommunications, page 690:

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

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

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

Etymology 3

Abbreviation

Noun

quad (plural quads)

1. A quad bike.
2. Abbreviation of quadrillion BTU. (10¹⁵ BTU)

Translations

quad bike — see quad bike

See also

• Quad (unit) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

quad (third-person singular simple present quads, present participle quadding, simple past and past participle quadded)

1. to ride a quad bike

Etymology 4

1785 Quads. pl, 1847 quads, verb 1876. From the abbreviation quad., for obsolete quadrat. Keyboard command is named for the verb sense.

Alternative forms

• quad. (obsolete)

Noun

quad (plural quads)

2. (letterpress typography) A blank metal block used to fill short lines of type.
   • 1853, Charles Dickens, “Household Words”, n 160 (April 16), p 148:

     “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.

   • 1979, Marshall Lee, Bookmaking, page 110:

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

   • 2005, Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam, Type & Typography, 2nd ed, p 91:

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

3. (printing slang) A joke used to fill long days of setting type.
4. (typography, phototypesetting and digital typesetting) A 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.

Synonyms

• em space
• quadrat (obsolete)

Derived terms

Derived terms

• em quad, 2-em quad, 3-em quad
• en quad
• mutton quad
• quad center/quad centre, quad left, quad middle, quad right

Verb

quad (third-person singular simple present quads, present participle quadding, simple past and past participle quadded)

1. (letterpress typography, transitive, intransitive) To fill spaces in a line of type with quads. Also quad out.
2. (typography, phototypesetting and digital typesetting, transitive, intransitive) To align text with the left or right margin, or centre it.

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈkwat/

Noun

quad m (plural quads)

1. Clipping of quadricicle.

Dutch

Etymology

From English quad.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

quad m (plural quads, diminutive quadje n)

1. quad, quad bike

Italian

Noun

quad m (invariable)

1. quad bike

Old High German

Verb

quad

1. first/third-person singular past indicative of quedan

Polish

quad

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English quad.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwat/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -at
• Syllabification: quad

Noun

quad m inan

1. quad bike

   Synonyms: czterokołowiec, wszędołaz, kład

Declension

Declension of quad

	singular	plural
nominative	quad	quady
genitive	quada	quadów
dative	quadowi	quadom
accusative	quad	quady
instrumental	quadem	quadami
locative	quadzie	quadach
vocative	quadzie	quady

Further reading

• quad in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• quad in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Spanish

Noun

quad f (plural quads)

1. all-terrain vehicle

Further reading

• “quad”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014