four-square, a. (adv.), and n.
[f. four a. + square.]
A. adj. Having four equal sides; square.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 19843 A mikel linnen clath four squar Laten dun, him thoght was þar. 1470–85 Malory Arthur i. iii, There was sene in the chircheyard ayenst the hyghe aulter a grete stone four square. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §34 Whyte wheate is lyke polerde wheate in the busshell..and the eare is foure-square. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 59 Adjoyning is another foure-square room. 1745 Eliza Heywood Female Spect. (1748) II. 279 A four-square looking-glass. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps vi. 164 The four-square keep of Granson. |
| transf. and fig. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1304 Six⁓teene is a number quadrangular or foure-square. 1877 Dowden Shaks. Prim. vi. 135 Goneril is..the more incapable of any hatred which is not solid and four-square. 1886 Lowell Wks. (1890) VI. 176 One of Aristotle's four-square men, capable of holding his own in whatever field he may be cast. |
b. quasi-adv. In a square form or position.
| c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. i. 46 Caste by þe cake round abowte, & close hym four-square. 1522–3 Fitzherb. Husb. §13 Bere barleye..hathe an eare thre ynches of lengthe or more, sette foure square. 1852 Tennyson Ode Wellington 39 That tower of strength Which stood four⁓square to all the winds that blew! |
| fig. 1845–6 Trench Huls. Lect. Ser. i. iii. 47 We have a Gospel which stands four-square, with a side facing each side of the spiritual world. 1877 L. Morris Epic Hades iii. 260 It is strength To live four-square. 1884 Warfield in Chr. Treas. Feb. 90/1 A masterly argument..set four⁓square against all possible opposition. |
B. n. A figure having four equal sides.
| 1587 Golding De Mornay xv. 241 A fiuesquare conteineth both a Fowersquare and a Triangle. 1613 M. Ridley Magn. Bodies 32 You may forme the stone..into a foure⁓square. 1696 Temple Ess. iii. §2 (ed. 4) 175 Peking..is a regular Four-square; the Wall of each side is six Miles in length. 1787 M. Cutler in Life, Jrnl. & Corr. (1888) I. 224 The whole roof forms the base of the steeple in a four⁓square. 1844 Upton Physioglyphics 174 It is then of a shape between a circle and four-square. |
Hence
† ˈfour-squared ppl. a. = four-square a. Also
foursquarewise adv., forming a square.
| 1513 Douglas æneis vii. ix. 78 He Stude schydand ane four-squayr akyne tre. 1535 Coverdale Lam. iii. 9 He hath stopped vp my wayes with foure squared stones. 1551 Turner Herbal i. O ij, Walwurt..hath a forsquared stalk and full of ioyntes. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 701 The West part, is compassed in with a uerie faire wall and the river together, fouresquarewise. 1694 Molyneux in Phil. Trans. XVIII. 181 Our Irish Basaltes is composed of Columns, whereof none are four-squared. 1708 Motteux Rabelais iv. xl. 160 It threw..four squar'd Steel Boults. |