Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses abreast.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In classical antiquity, a two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses, which were harnessed all abreast.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Rom. Antiq.) A car or chariot drawn by four horses abreast.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical A Roman racing chariot drawn by four horses abreast.
  • noun historical A team of four horses, especially as used in chariot racing.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin quadrīga, sing. of quadrīgae, team of four horses, contraction of quadriiugae, feminine pl. of quadriiugus, of a team of four : quadri-, quadri- + iugum, yoke; see jugum.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin quādrīgae, literally "four yoked" (quattuor "four" + iugum "yoke").

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Examples

  • Dionysius went over to Syracuse with his four-horse chariot, called the quadriga, and, much to the surprise of the Greeks, won the coveted laurel wreath at the

    The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 2, No. 11, March 17, 1898 A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls Various

  • Notice now the sun's quadriga ie. chariot on top of the roof representing the sun at zenith?

    Erecting an Etruscan temple 2010

  • The Mausoleum was seven storeys of white marble crowned by a quadriga four-horse chariot, and my guess is that it would have been visible to ships for at least twenty nautical miles.

    Archive 2009-05-01 Walter Jon Williams 2009

  • The Mausoleum was seven storeys of white marble crowned by a quadriga four-horse chariot, and my guess is that it would have been visible to ships for at least twenty nautical miles.

    Bodrum Walter Jon Williams 2009

  • On the top of the arch of Septimius Severus was an quadriga.

    Rome Stillborn 1.0 2007

  • All at once he threw back his head, his blond locks fell back like those of an angel on the sombre quadriga made of stars, they were like the mane of a startled lion in the flaming of an halo, and Enjolras cried:

    Les Miserables 2008

  • Five centuries later they're in Rome, on top of a triumphal arch of Nero in the Forum, part of a sculptural group showing the emperor drawing a four-horse quadriga.

    Crusader Gold Gibbons, David 2007

  • Following them was a manic chattering dwarf driving a four-horse chariot, an imperial quadriga, only this one was pulled by haltered goats.

    Crusader Gold Gibbons, David 2007

  • Five centuries later they're in Rome, on top of a triumphal arch of Nero in the Forum, part of a sculptural group showing the emperor drawing a four-horse quadriga.

    Crusader Gold Gibbons, David 2007

  • Apollo had a quadriga, a chariot which was pulled by four horses, which he drove across the heavens, delivering daylight and dispensing the night.

    Pope Benedict Archbishop of Canterbury Cancel George Bush's Crusade 2007

Comments

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  • "... And rushing directly toward him, screaming like an eagle and wild-eyed as his horses, was what appeared to be one of the ancient German gods of war, driving a chariot drawn by four galloping dark horses, scarlet-mouthed and foaming.

    Grey flung himself to the side, taking the butler to the ground with him, and the chariot slewed past with barely an inch to spare, a flurry of monstrous hooves spraying them with sand and droplets of saliva....

    The quadriga—yes, by God, it was; the four horses ran abreast, threatening at every moment to overturn the chariot that bounced like a pebble in their wake—galloped on, held in perilous check by the one-armed maniac who stood upright behind them...."

    —Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (New York: Delacorte Press, 2007), 333

    May 5, 2009