sb. and a. 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 sb.1 Cf. CINQUEFOIL.]

1

  † A.  adj. Having four leaves. Obs. rare.

2

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.

3

  B.  sb. † 1. A set of four leaves. Obs. rare–1.

4

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., III. 623. Let grounden glas go syfte on hem … When theyr trefoyl or quaterfoyl is owte.

5

  2.  A compound leaf or flower consisting of four (usually rounded) leaflets or petals radiating from a common center; 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.

6

  Double quatrefoil, an ornament, etc., having eight divisions similarly disposed.

7

1494.  Fabyan, Chron., VII. 600. Quynces in compost. Blaund Iure, powderyd with quarter foyles gylt.

8

1520.  in Archæologia, LIII. 19. A crosse sylver and gylte like a quaterfold.

9

1562.  Leigh, Armorie (1597), 110 b. He beareth … a double Caterfoyle…. He beareth the quaterfoyle double … because he is the viij from the heire.

10

1610.  Guillim, Heraldry, I. vi. (1611), 26. The Crosse Moline, and the Double Cater-foile.

11

1771.  Antiq. Sarisb., 191. A little cross … like a quaterfoille.

12

1805.  Scott, Last Minstrel, II. ix. The key-stone, that lock’d each ribbed aisle, Was a fleur-de-lys, or a quatre-feuille.

13

1849.  Freeman, Archit., 360. We … find in Early Gothic the head of a couplet filled with a circle, a quatrefoil [etc.].

14

  Hence Quatrefoiled a., having the form of a quatrefoil, divided into four parts by cusps.

15

1848.  B. Webb, Continental Ecclesiol., 62. The side lights having quatrefoiled circles in their heads.

16

1855.  Ecclesiologist, XVI. 295. A taller column, quatrefoiled in section.

17

1881.  N. & Q., 6th Ser. III. 133/1. A brass seal with a quatrefoiled handle.

18

  So Quatrefoliated a.

19

1850.  T. Inkersley, Inq. Rom. & Pointed Archit. France, 309. Sustaining two quatrefoliated circles.

20