quadrille

See also: quadrillé

English

Two couples doing a quadrille

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪl

Etymology 1

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

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^[1], 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^[2]:

     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

dance

• Catalan: quadrilla (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 方阵舞

• Czech: čtverylka (cs) f
• Esperanto: kvadrilo
• Estonian: kadrill
• French: quadrille (fr) f
• Georgian: კადრილი (ḳadrili)
• German: Quadrille (de) f

• Greek: καντρίλια (el) f (kantrília), καδρίλια (el) f (kadrília)
• Ido: quadrilo (io)
• Italian: quadriglia f
• Portuguese: quadrilha (pt) f
• Russian: кадри́ль (ru) f (kadrílʹ)
• Spanish: cuadrilla f
• Swedish: kadrilj (sv) c

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To dance the quadrille.
   • 1834, Arthur Courtenay, Autobiography and Letters of Arthur Courtenay (page 36)

     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.

Etymology 2

From French quadrillé.

Noun

quadrille (plural quadrilles)

1. Quadrille ruled graph paper, quad paper.

Derived terms

• quadrille paper

Related terms

• quad
• quadrella

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.dʁij/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

Noun

quadrille m or 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. third-person singular present subjunctive of quadriller
5. second-person singular imperative of quadriller

Further reading

• “quadrille” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).