quadrille

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a four-player card game derived from ombre and especially popular in the eighteenth century

   Four guests settled at the card table for a quiet game of quadrille.

2. 2
   noun

   a square dance for four couples, traditionally arranged in five or six figures

   The historical society taught a quadrille at its Regency ball.

3. 3
   noun

   music composed for or used to accompany this dance

   The orchestra opened the set with a lively quadrille.

From French quadrille, once a group of horsemen in a tournament and later the name of a four-handed card game and a dance set. French borrowed it from Spanish cuadrilla, a small group or troop, from cuadra ('square'), ultimately Latin quadra. The recurring association is with groups of four.

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