[a. F. quintuple (1484), f. L. quint-us fifth, after quadruple.]
A. adj. Fivefold; multiplied by five; consisting of five things or parts.
Quintuple power, proportion, ratio, the ratio of five to one. Quintuple time in Mus. (see quot. 1806).
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, XIII. ii. 391. If a right line be in power quintuple to a segment of the same line.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xvi. § 6. A proportion quintuple at most of the writing infolding to the writing infolded.
1633. Heywood, Eng. Trav., I. i. Wks. 1874, IV. 7. Bring backe His ship and charge, with profits quintuple.
1672. Petty, Pol. Anat. (1691), 24. The number and natural force of the Irish [was] quintuple to that of the English.
1711. Wylde, Eng. Master Defence, 26. A Falsify is made single,… quadruple, quintuple, or as oft as your Fancy directs.
1806. Callcott, Mus. Gram., iii. 40. A species of Time called Quintuple, which contains five Crotchets in a Bar.
1875. Blake, Zool., 335. In the Sea-urchins … the body has a quintuple arrangement.
b. Comb., as quintuple-nerved, -ribbed.
1832. Lindley, Introd. Bot. (1839), 129. A leaf … is called triple, quintuple, &c. nerved, if the nerves all proceed from the midrib towards the margin.
1861. Bentley, Man. Bot., 153. If two such ribs arise on each side of the midrib, it is termed quintuple-ribbed or quintuplicostate.
B. sb. A fivefold amount; a group of five. rare.
1684. J. Wallis, Angular Sections, iv. 27. The Quintuple of the Subtense of an Arch. Ibid. The Quintuple of the Cube of the same Subtense.
1784. Herschel, in Phil. Trans., LXXV. 91. Five more [stars] in view, differently dispersed about the quintuple.
