sb. pl. Zool. [neut. pl. (sc. animālia) of mod.L. quadrumanus four-handed, f. quadru- QUADRU- + manus hand. Cf. BIMANA.] An order of mammals, including monkeys, apes, baboons, and lemurs, of which the hind as well as the fore feet have an opposable digit, so that they can be used as hands.
1819. W. Lawrence, Lect. Physiol. Zool., 175. The crania of all the quadrumana … are distinguished from the human skull by the comparative size … of the jaws.
1833. Sir C. Bell, Hand (1834), 18. If we describe the hand as [etc.] … we embrace in the definition the extremities of the quadrumana or monkeys.
1863. Lyell, Antiq. Man, xix. 375. Those species of the anthropoid quadrumana which are most akin to him [man] in structure.
1882. Owen, in Longm. Mag., I. 67. This tooth … is the last of the permanent set of teeth to be fully developed in the Quadrumana.
