a. and sb. [ad. L. quadrirēm-is, f. quadri- QUADRI- + rēmus oar.]
A. adj. Of ancient ships: Having four banks of oars.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXXVII. xxiii. 957. Now of the Rhodians there were 32 quadrireme Gallies and 4 other triremes besides.
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece, III. xiv. (1795), 134. Trireme, quadrireme, and quinquereme Gallies, which exceeded one another by a Bank of Oars. [Hence in Robinson, Archæol. Græca, IV. xiii. (1807), 387.]
B. sb. A vessel having four banks of oars.
a. 1656. Ussher, Ann. (1658), 286. There were often sea fights … between the Triremes, and the Quadriremes.
1656. in Blount, Glossogr.
1799. Charnock, in Naval Chron., I. 132. Ancient galleys, called Triremes, Quadriremes, Quinquiremes.
1852. Grote, Greece, II. lxxxii. (1856), X. 667. Dionysius or his naval architects now struck out the plan of building … quadriremes or quinqueremes, instead of triremes.
