a. and sb. Sc. [f. FOUR a. + -SOME.] A. adj.
1. Four (together). Also absol.
a. 1510. Douglas, K. Hart, I. 198. The fouresum baid and huvit on the grene.
c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), ii. 145.
| For, wer ȝe foursum in a flok, | |
| I compt ȝow not a leik. |
b. Used for the nonce as adv.
1875. Morris, Æneid, VII. 509.
| Come from the cleaving of an oak with foursome driven wedge, | |
| Panting and fierce he tossed aloft the wood-bill’s grinded edge. |
2. Performed by four persons together.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxviii. Capering and dancing full merrily in the doubles and full career of a Scotch foursome reel, to the music of his own whistling.
1884. J. Payne, 1001 Nts., IX. 388. The Murebbes or foursome song occurs once only in the Nights, and consists of a series of two-beit stanzas.
B. sb. Golf. A match in which four persons take part, two playing on each side.
1867. Cornh. Mag., XV. April, 493. Perhaps you find three men who, with yourself, will make a good foursome; there remains the question of adjustment, and this is an important one, and betrays what may be considered by a thoughtless looker-on a somewhat depraved side of the golfer’s character.
