Also 8 tresdille, 9 tradrille. [f. QUADRILLE by substitution of tre- three for qua(d-.] A card-game played by three persons, usually with thirty cards.
1764. H. Walpole, Lett. to Earl Hertford, 8 June. Lady Albemarle was at tredille.
1767. Lady Mary Coke, Jrnl., 2 May. The Duchess, Lady Blunt and I play’d at tresdille. Ibid. (1769), 15 June. I play’d at tredrille … with Madame de Viry and a French Officer for a shilling a fish.
1816. Singer, Hist. Cards, 266. Tredrille, a modification of Quadrille which might be played by three persons…. It was considered as very inferior to the game Quadrille played by four.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Mrs. Battle’s Opinions on Whist. To explain to me how far it [ombre] agreed with, and in what points it would be found to differ from, tradrille.
1825. Mrs. Sherwood, Bitter Sweet, II. 5. A hand at tredille or three-handed whist.
1860. T. L. Peacock, Gryll Gr., xxiii. Quadrille is played with forty cards: tredrille usually with thirty: sometimes, as in Pope’s Ombre, with twenty seven.
