quad
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kwɑd/
ipa: /kwɒd/
rhymes: -ɒd
Forms: form: quads
Etymology: Shortened, via clipping or abbreviation, from various English terms. Ultimately related to Latin quattuor (“4”); compare quadri-, quadruple.
The typography senses are from the abbreviation quad. for obsolete quadrat; the keyboard command comes from the verb sense.
Senses: examples: text: “Quadrats, sir. We call 'em quads.” […] Quads are the spaces left between the paragraphs that come white on the paper. If you look here, at this page that is set-up, you will see that they are deeper than the spaces left between the words and letters—regular little trenches.
ref: 1853 April 16, Charles Dickens, Household Words, number 160, page 148:
text: Horizontal spacing is further divided into multiples and fractions of the em. The multiples are called quads. The fractions are called spaces.
ref: 1979, Marshall Lee, Bookmaking, page 110:
text: Other larger spaces – known as quads – were used to space out lines.
ref: 2005, Phil Baines, Andrew Haslam, Type & Typography, 2nd edition, page 91:
topics: letterpress-typography
media
publishing
typography
glosses: Clipping of quadrat.
A blank metal block used to fill short lines of type.
synonyms: em quad
em space
quadrat
topics: media
printing
publishing
typography
glosses: Clipping of quadrat.
A joke used to fill long days of setting type.
topics: media
publishing
typography
glosses: Clipping of quadrat.
A keyboard command which aligns text with the left or right margin, or centred between them. In combination, as quad left, quad right, or quad centre.
qualifier: phototypesetting and digital typesetting
examples: text: Gilt-backed books on gilded shelf or table caught the eye, and as you turned your glance from the luxurious interiors to the well-shorn lawn in the Quad with its classic fountain also gilded by sunbeams, the mental vision saw plainly written over the whole "The Union of Luxury and Learning."
ref: 1880, William Blades, The Enemies of Books, page 38:
text: Every spring, the quad on the University of Washington (UW) campus transforms from a peaceful green space to a bustling habitat for hundreds of shuttering cameras, families, and onlookers.
ref: 2014, Walker Orenstein, for Norwest Asian Weekly, Cherry trees from Japan to grace UW campus:
text: The teenage couple is lounging on the lawn outside a high school, taking advantage of a free period between classes in that age-old way: making out on the quad.
ref: 2021 November 21, Nicole Sperling, “How Do You Make Teen Comedies Today? Buy a High School.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: A quadrangle (quadrangular courtyard).
examples: text: The quads is all right, barrin’ that the bay is blind o’ the left eye, and the chestnut a bit weak in the off fore.
ref: 1934, John Buchan, The Free Fishers, page 258:
glosses: A horse, from colloquial or humorous quadruped specifically for horse.
glosses: Something that is quadruple (four times) the usual amount, number, etc.
A poster advertising a cinematic film release, measuring forty by thirty inches, four times the area of crown paper.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
skating
sports
glosses: Something that is quadruple (four times) the usual amount, number, etc.
A quadruple, a jump with four revolutions in the air.
examples: text: A grande iced quad latte with milk is $6.65 + tax, whereas a quad over ice with milk added at the self-serve station is only $3.65 + tax
ref: 2023 May 7, Josh, “How to Order a Quad Over Ice + Fun Alternatives”, in Angry Espresso, archived from the original on 28 May 2023:
glosses: Something that is quadruple (four times) the usual amount, number, etc.
A serving of four shots of espresso; (attributive) containing four shots of espresso.
examples: text: These are the quads I recommend for newbies.
ref: 2018, Elicia Hyder, Lights Out Lucy: Roller Derby 101:
text: When you can skate, inline, ice, quads are all equally enjoyable as long as they are of good enough quality.
ref: 2014, Brigitte Legendre, A Skater's Business, page 16:
glosses: Something that is quadruple (four times) the usual amount, number, etc.
A skate with four wheels.
examples: text: The Pair, Triples, and Quads can be formed with both Honor and Suit Tiles.
ref: 1991, Alain Gelbman, Mah Jong: One Step at a Time, page 7:
text: Object of the game: To use up all the tiles by playing them in quads. A quad is four consecutive numbers running in ascending or descending order, and played in a straight line.
ref: 1999, Jennifer Kelley, Great Book of Domino Games, page 70:
text: Each person on the team could be exclusively responsible for taking care of and keeping records for one set of four plants (a quad).
ref: 2002, Experiments with Plants: teacher’s guide, page 18:
glosses: Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).
topics: business
communications
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
telecommunications
glosses: Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).
A group of four insulated wires twisted together to form two circuits of two wires each.
topics: broadcasting
media
radio
glosses: Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).
A quad antenna, a directional radio antenna consisting of multiple loop antennas.
examples: text: My husband Jim was home[…] and so were my children: Samantha, 4, and the quadruplets, Zachary, Danielle, Amanda, and Elisabeth. The quads were eighteen months old and in their usual fine form — singing, banging, pushing each other, and toddling into impossible places.
ref: 1980, Linda Schreiber, Marathon Mom: The Wife and Mother Running Book, page 18:
glosses: Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).
A quadruplet, one of four babies born during the same birth.
topics: board-games
chess
games
glosses: Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).
A kind of round-robin tournament between four players, where each participant plays every other participant once.
glosses: Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).
The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price bound in a single volume.
examples: text: Both players had four of a kind. A had quad fours; B had quad deuces.
ref: 2001, Alfred Alvarez, Poker: Bets, Bluffs and Bad Beats, page 90:
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: Clipping of quadruplet (“a set of four; one of a set of four”).
Of or relating to quads (four of a kind).
examples: text: Aesthetics aside, if you train your quads while neglecting your hamstrings, you're setting yourself up for an eventual injury.
ref: 2010, Adam Garett, “Fried Hams”, in Reps!, 17:23:
glosses: The quadriceps muscle.
examples: text: The high band color quadruplex format is recommended for the following reasons:
1. Quad is now the accepted industry standard world-wide with over 90% of all television broadcast operations using this format for video recording.
ref: 1975, [US] House Subcommittee on Communications, Telecommunications Facilities and Demonstration Act of 1975, page 11:
glosses: Quadruplex videotape.
examples: text: The worse was the realization that this was my new reality. This too was Bill's debut as a husband of a quad and his first social gathering since June 22.
ref: 2005, Nancy H. Blose, Behind the Curtain: Living as a Quadriplegic, Lulu Publishing, published 2015, →ISBN, pages 74–75:
glosses: A quadriplegic person.
glosses: A unit of energy equivalent to a quadrillion BTU (10¹⁵ BTU).
examples: text: Cad was a ferocious driver of a quad, much given to wheelies, jumps and stunts in general.
ref: 2000, Sam Llewellyn, Wonder Dog, page 20:
glosses: A quad bike.
examples: text: System Rasterization Primitives • Polygons • Triangles, Trapezoids, Quads
ref: 1989, ACM SIGGRAPH '89 Course Notes, New York: Association for Computing Machinery, page 48:
text: schemes have appeared which generate good results when applied to meshes which contain both triangular and quadrilateral regions. These kinds of schemes turn out to be very useful for modelling animations, because there, in symmetric (e.g. cylindrical) areas, quads and vertices with valence 4 are preferred
ref: 2006, Koen Beets, Johan Claes, Frank Van Reeth, “Optimizing Mesh Construction for Quad/Triangle Schemes”, in Hans-Peter Seidel, Tomoyuki Nishita, Qunsheng Peng, editors, Advances in Computer Graphics, page 711:
text: Tris and quads have different areas of functionality. In real-time graphics, tris are the norm because they provide the most basic geometric representations of planes.
ref: 2010, Tony Mullen, Claudio Andaur, Blender Studio Projects: Digital Movie-Making, page 91:
topics: computer-graphics
computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A quadrilateral.
examples: text: Today you can buy quadrotor drones—also known as quadcopters—of just about any kind, for just about any price. The extremely wealthy can buy gold-plated quads, and the rest of us can buy tiny plastic ones.
ref: 2017 May 19, Ed Darack, “A Brief History of Quadrotors”, in Air & Space Magazine:
glosses: A quadcopter.
examples: text: So what’s the beer for this great dish? You guessed it — Belgian quad. “I don’t usually pair the same beer with the one used in the recipe,” Bill explains, “but drinking a great quad with this dish really elevates both the food and the beer in a special way.”
ref: 2012, Bruce Glassman, Brew Food: Great Beer-inspired Appetizers, Main Courses, and Desserts, page 142:
glosses: A quadrupel beer.
Derived terms: topics: typography
publishing
media
word: em quad
topics: typography
publishing
media
word: en quad
topics: typography
publishing
media
word: mutton quad
topics: typography
publishing
media
word: nut quad
sense: quadruplet
word: dotted quad
sense: quadruplet
word: quad bike
sense: quadruplet
word: quadcore
sense: quadruplet
word: quad meet
sense: quadruplet
word: quad play
sense: quadruplet
word: quad skate
sense: other senses
word: Quad Committee
sense: other senses
word: quad hockey
sense: other senses
word: quad rugby
sense: other senses
word: quad ruled
sense: other senses
word: quad suit