a. and sb. Also (correctly) quadriennial, (7 -ennal). [ad. L. type *quadrienniāl-is, -ennāl-is: see QUADRENNIUM and -AL, and cf. F. quatriennal.]
A. adj. 1. Occurring every fourth year.
1701. W. Wotton, Hist. Rome, Marcus, iii. 46. Their Accounts of Time were reckoned by the Quadriennial Returns of the Grand Games.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xxviii. IV. 92. Peisistratus … first added the quadrennial or greater Panathenæa to the ancient annual or lesser Panathenæa.
1880. Times, 27 Sept., 8/1. The Archbishop of Canterbury … continuing his quadrennial visitation of his diocese.
1884. Sat. Rev., 7 June, 745/2. Its statutes only demanded quadrennial residence.
2. Lasting for four years.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Quadriennial, of four years.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., Quadrennial, of the Space of four Years.
1881. Daily News, 11 March, 6/2. The German Parliament to-day decided … to refer the Bill for biennial Budgets and quadrennial Parliaments to a Committee.
B. sb. † a. A period of four years. Obs. rare–1. b. An event happening every four years. c. A fourth anniversary, or its celebration (Cent. Dict.).
a. 1646. J. Gregory, Posthuma, De Æris et Epochis (1650), 163. The Egyptians called everie daie in the year by the Name of som God,… and everie year of their Lustrum’s or Quadriennals in like manner.
1856. Sat. Rev., 8 Nov., 625/2. The great quadrennial—the Presidential election—is the ‘Derby Day’ of America.
Hence Quadrennially adv., every fourth year.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 626. The senate [of Virginia] chosen quadrennially.
