quadrilles

Noun (1)

quadrille (plural quadrilles)

1. 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.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 48
2. 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 betc. 19th century, J. M. Crofts, “The Irish Rover”
3. 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.1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter 17, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC
4. A choreographed dressage ride, commonly performed to music, with a minimum of four horses.

Noun (2)

quadrille (plural quadrilles)

1. Quadrille ruled graph paper, quad paper.

Noun (3)

quadrille (plural quadrilles)

1. A square tiling of the plane.

See all 8 meanings of quadrille