quatrain
(ˈkwɒtreɪn)
Also 6 quadrain, -rein(e, -reyne, 7 -ren, -rin, -ran.
[a. F. quatrain, † quadrain (Cotgr.), f. quatre four.]
1. A stanza of four lines, usually with alternate rimes; four lines of verse.
| α 1585 Jas. I Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 13 Ane qvadrain of Alexandrin verse. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. ii. (Arb.) 81 It is not a huitane or a staffe of eight, but two quadreins. 1611 Florio, Quartetto,..a quadren of a Sonnet, or staffe of foure verses. 1651 Delaune (title) A Legacie to his Sonnes. Digested into Quadrins. |
| β 1666 Dryden Pref. Ann. Mirab. Wks. (Globe) 38, I have chosen to write my poem in quatrains or stanzas of four in alternate rhyme. 1683 Temple Mem. Wks. 1731 I. 478 A Quatrain recited out of Nostredamus. 1823 Roscoe tr. Sismondi's Lit. Eur. (1846) I. iv. 102 The beautiful stanza of ten lines, in one quatrain and two tercets. 1856 R. A. Vaughan Mystics (1860) II. 7 There are many terse and happy couplets and quatrains in the Wanderer. |
b. A set of four persons.
nonce-use.
| 1862 S. Lucas Secularia 289 There were four English men of letters..of this stately quatrain Swift and Dryden are the only two he has encountered in his history. |
2. = quartern 5.
rare—1.
| 1819 Southey Lett. (1856) III. 120 Did I send you the opening of ‘Oliver Newman’, in a small square size..or in half quatrain form? |