quatrefoil, n. and a.
(ˈkætəfɔɪl)
Forms: 5 quaterfoile, -foyl(e, katir-, katerfoil, quarterfoyle, (9 -foil), 6 quaterfoille, -foyle, -fold, caterfoyle, 7 -foile, 8– quadre-, quatrefoil, (9 -feuil-le).
[a. OF. type *quatrefoil, f. quatre four + foil leaf, foil n.1 Cf. cinquefoil.]
† A. adj. Having four leaves. Obs. rare.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. ii. 57 Whan whete is quaterfoyle [L. quatuor foliorum] and barley fyue..hit is to wede hem. Ibid. xi. 118 And katerfoil, when thai beth vp yspronge, Transplaunte hem. |
B. n.
† 1. A set of four leaves. Obs. rare—1.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 623 Let grounden glas go syfte on hem..When theyr trefoyl or quaterfoyl is owte. |
2. A compound leaf or flower consisting of four (usually rounded) leaflets or petals radiating from a common centre; also, a representation or conventional imitation of this, esp. as a charge in Heraldry. b. Arch. An opening or ornament, having its outline so divided by cusps as to give it the appearance of four radiating leaflets or petals.
double quatrefoil, an ornament, etc., having eight divisions similarly disposed.
| 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 600 Quynces in compost. Blaund Iure, powderyd with quarter foyles gylt. 1520 in Archæologia LIII. 19 A crosse sylver and gylte like a quaterfold. 1562 Leigh Armorie (1597) 110 b, He beareth..a double Caterfoyle... He beareth the quaterfoyle double.. because he is the viij from the heire. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry i. vi. (1611) 26 The Crosse Moline, and the Double Cater-foile. 1771 Antiq. Sarisb. 191 A little cross..like a quaterfoille. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. ii. ix, The key-stone, that lock'd each ribbed aisle, Was a fleur-de-lys, or a quatre-feuille. 1849 Freeman Archit. 360 We..find in Early Gothic the head of a couplet filled with a circle, a quatrefoil [etc.]. |
Hence ˈquatrefoiled a., having the form of a quatrefoil, divided into four parts by cusps. So quatreˈfoliated a.
| 1848 B. Webb Cont. Ecclesiol. 62 The side lights having quatrefoiled circles in their heads. 1855 Ecclesiologist XVI. 295 A taller column, quatrefoiled in section. 1881 N. & Q. 6th Ser. III. 133/1 A brass seal with a quatrefoiled handle. |
| 1850 T. Inkersley Inq. Rom. & Pointed Archit. France 309 Sustaining two quatrefoliated circles. |