Also 6 quadriple, 8 quadruble. [a. F. quadruple (13th c., OF. also quadruble), ad. L. quadruplus, f. quadru- QUADRU- + -plus as in duplus DOUBLE. An earlier form in Eng. was QUATREBLE, q.v. The stressing quadru·ple (see quots. a. 1745 and 1820 in A) is usual in Sc.]
A. adj. Fourfold; consisting of four parts; four times as great or as many as. Const. of, to, or without prep.
1557. [see b].
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., III. x. § 3. A law that … doth punish thieves with a quadruple restitution.
1628. Mead, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. III. 268. The quadruple strength which they have prepared against our Fleet.
a. 1648. Ld. Herbert, Hen. VIII. (1683), 9. [A sum] quadruple to so much in this age.
a. 1745. Swift, To George-Nim-Dan-Dean, Esq. (R.). How I joy to see thee wander … In circling mazes, smooth and supple, And ending in a clink quadruple.
1807. Hutton, Course Math., II. 269. To receive light and heat quadruple to that of the earth.
1820. Keats, Hyperion, II. 146. A quadruple wrath Unhinges the poor world.
1825. Macaulay, Ess., Machiavelli (1887), 34. When the value of silver was more than quadruple of what it now is.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner. & Ferns, 576. Single, triple, or quadruple concentric series of narrow elements.
b. In various special applications.
Quadruple algebra, algebra in which four independent units are used. Quadruple counterjoint, four-part counterpoint in which the parts may be interchanged without breaking the rules of counterpoint. Quadruple pistole = sb. 2 b. † Quadruple proportion = quadruple ratio. Quadruple quaver, a hemidemisemiquaver. Quadruple ratio, the ratio of four to one. Quadruple rhythm, time, in Mus., rhythm or time having four beats in a measure.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., B j b. If it containe it .4. tymes, then is it [the proportion] quadrupla, or quadruple. Ibid., C j. Proportion … Doble, Triple, Quadriple.
1727. Chambers, Cycl., Pistole … has its augmentations, and diminutions; which are quadruple pistoles, double pistoles, and half pistoles.
1869. Ouseley, Counterp., xvii. 134. Triple and quadruple counterpoints … consist of three or four melodies so interwoven that any of them may become a correct bass to the others.
1898. J. Hammond, Lett., 22 Dec. Hamilton’s Quaternions is a quadruple algebra, the 4 independent units being his i, j, k, and the unit of quantity.
c. Hist. Quadruple alliance, an alliance of four powers, esp. that of Britain, France, Germany and Holland in 1718, and of Britain, France, Spain and Portugal in 1834.
1735. H. Walpole, Corr. (1820), I. 3. I believe you will guess there is no quadruple alliance.
1825. Jefferson, Autobiog., Wks. 1859, I. 76. She [France] secretly engaged, also, in negotiations with Russia, Austria, and Spain, to form a quadruple alliance.
1872. Freeman, Gen. Sketch, xv. § 2 (1874), 304. France, England, and the United Provinces presently joined the Emperor in the Quadruple Alliance against Spain.
fig. 1787. Burns, Lett. to Miss Chalmers, 12 Dec. Misfortune, bodily constitution, hell, and myself, have formed a ‘quadruple alliance’ to guarantee the other.
d. Applied to printing-papers that are four times the usual size, as quadruple crown, -demy, -foolscap, etc. Cf. QUAD a.
B. sb. 1. Anything fourfold; a sum or quantity four times as great as another.
1609. Douland, Ornith. Microl., 61. Now if we place these Triples … in the vpper ranke we shall produce Quadruples.
1640–1. Kirkcudbr. War-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855), 149. The quadruple of the pryce of the inch of the best sort of schoes.
1822. J. Flint, Lett. fr. Amer., 309. I believe, if he had laid them [the damages] at quadruple, the jury would have given him every cent.
2. spec. † a. A tooth having a quadruple root. Obs. † b. A coin of the value of four pistoles (so in French; cf. A. b, quot. 1727). Obs. † c. A fourfold fine. Obs. d. A printing machine that prints four copies at once.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. Two donales two quadruples .viij. molares and two cassalles.
1655. trans. Com. Hist. Francion, XII. 20. See here his Quadruples which I never touched before.
1673. Dryden, Amboyna, II. i. No transitory Sum, three hundred Quadruples in your own Country Gold.
1682. Lond. Gaz., No. 1784/4. A considerable Sum of Money was stolen, among which were several Quadruples, or Four-Pistol-Pieces.
1695. Sc. Acts Will. III., c. 55 (1822), IX. 453/1. Incurring the Quadruples appoynted by the said Act by way of penalty.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 203. It was Mr. Lloyd who had the first of these new Quadruples at work on a London daily newspaper.
C. adv. in Comb. In a fourfold manner.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xli. Places of distrust and cruelty, and restraint, they would have left quadruple-locked for ever.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 62/1. Blundell’s Patent Duplex (quadruple acting) portable Fire Engines.
