Quad

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɑːd
• Rhymes: -É’d

Full definition of quad

Noun

1. (informal) A quadrangle (courtyard).
• 2014, Walker Orenstein, for Norwest Asian Weekly, Cherry trees from Japan to grace UW campus: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.
2. (informal) A quadruplet (infant).
3. short for quadrilateral
4. (informal) A quadriceps muscle.
5. Four shots of espresso.
6. A quad bike.
7. (chess) A kind of round robin tournament between four players, where each participant plays every other participant once.
8. (Mormonism) The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price bound in a single volume.

Derived terms

• quad bike
• quad strip
• quad ruled
• quaddie

Adjective

1. Having four shots of espresso.
2. (poker slang) Of or relating to quads.

1785 Quads. pl, 1847 quads, verb 1876. From the abbreviation quad., for obsolete quadrat. Keyboard command is named for the verb sense.

Alternative forms

• quad. obsolete

Noun

1. (metal type) A blank metal block used to fill short lines of type.
• 1853, Charles Dickens, “Household Words”, n 160 (April 16), p 148: “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.
• 1979, Marshall Lee, Bookmaking, p 110:Horizontal spacing is further divided into multiples and fractions of the em. The multiples are called quads. The fractions are called spaces.
• 2005, Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam, Type & Typography, 2nd ed, p 91:Other larger spaces – known as quads – were used to space out lines.
2. (printing slang) A joke used to fill long days of setting type.
3. (typography, phototypesetting and digital typesetting) 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.

Synonyms

• em space
• quadrat obsolete

Derived terms

• em quad, 2-em quad, 3-em quad
• en quad
• mutton quad
• quad center/quad centre, quad left, quad middle, quad right

Verb

1. (metal type, transitive, intransitive) To fill spaces in a line of type with quads. Also quad out.
2. (typography, phototypesetting and digital typesetting, transitive, intransitive) To align text with the left or right margin, or centre it.----