quadrille
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quadrille¹
- /kwɒdˈɹɪl/
Rhymes with -ɪl
Where it comes from
French, in sense of “group of knights”, from Spanish cuadrilla, diminutive of cuadra (“square”) (compare also cuadra (“four”)), from Latin quadra.
noun quadrilles
- A 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.
- The 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
- A 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.
- A choreographed dressage ride, commonly performed to music, with a minimum of four horses.
verb quadrilles · quadrilling · quadrilled
- To 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.
quadrille²
- /kwɒdˈɹɪl/
Rhymes with -ɪl
Where it comes from
From French quadrillé (“crosshatched”, adjective).
adjective
- Marked with squares. 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.
noun quadrilles
- Quadrille ruled graph paper, quad paper.
quadrille³
- /kwɒdˈɹɪl/
Rhymes with -ɪl
Where it comes from
Term used by John Horton Conway.
noun quadrilles
- A square tiling of the plane.
Translations
Talk about this word "quadrille." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/quadrille. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. quadrille. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/quadrille "quadrille." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/quadrille.Cite this
@misc{quadrille_2026,
title = {quadrille},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/quadrille},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
