† quatreble, a. and n. Obs.
Also 5 -trebil, -tribill, 6 -treple, quadreble, -ible.
[Alteration of F. quadruple on anal. of trible treble.]
A. adj. = quadruple.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. cxxv. (1495) 925 Thre is treble to one; and fowre is quatreble to one. [See also uinible.] c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. 82 Treble or quatreblee [odours]. 1454 Rolls Parlt. V. 273 The quatreble value of Wolles..so shippid. 1489 Barbour's Bruce (Edinb. MS.) xviii. 30 He suld fecht that day Thocht tribill and quatribill war thai. 1553 Respublica (Brandl) ii. iii. 4 Ye, double knave youe, will ye never be other?.. Ye, quadrible knave [etc.]. 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. xcvi. 8 Double or treble (yea quatreble) cause. [1735 W. Hawkins Stat. at Large I. 425 The same Hostler shall incur the quatreble Value of that which he hath taken.] |
B. n.
1. A fourfold amount.
| 14.. Lansdowne MS. 763 in N. & Q. 4th Ser. (1870) VI. 117/1 The same proportion that is betwene twoe small numberis, the same is betwene doubles and treblis, and quatrebils and quiniblis. 1429 Rolls Parlt. IV. 349/1 Ye parte pleynyng shal have ye quatreble of his damages. 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. 51 If they had dooen euill, they shuld paie the quatreple or foure tymes so much as they receiued. |
2. Mus. A note higher than the treble, being an octave above the mean. (Cf. quinible.)
| 1528 [see next quot.]. 1855–7 W. Chappell Pop. Mus. Olden Time I. 34 To sing a ‘quatrible’ [means] to descant by fourths. The..term is used by Cornish in his Treatise between Trowthe and Enformacion, 1528. 1870 ― in N. & Q. 4th Ser. VI. 117/1 The quatreble began and ended a twelfth above [the plain song] and the quinible a fifteenth. |
Hence † quatreble (quadrible) v., to quadruple; also Mus., to sing a quatreble.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. ix. (1495) 759 Some serpentes haue many hedys, for some ben dowble and some treblyd and some quatrebled. c 1500 Prov. in Antiq. Rep. (1809) IV. 406 He that quadribilithe to hy, his voice is variable. 1607 J. Norden Surv. Dial. ii. 67 The profite was twice quadrebled. |