Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A representation of a flower with four petals or a leaf with four leaflets, especially in heraldry.
- noun Architecture Tracery or an ornament with four foils or lobes.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A leaf with four leaflets, as sometimes that of clover.
- noun In architecture, an opening or a panel divided by cusps or foliations into four foils, or, more correctly, the figure formed by the cusps.
- noun In heraldry, a four-leaved grass, or leaf divided into four leaflets, used as a bearing.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun architecture a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially-overlapping circles of the same diameter.
- noun heraldry A stylized
flower orleaf with fourlobes .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Above the quatrefoil is another representing the Redeemer seated on a cushioned throne with the Virgin, and below another representing St. Michael overcoming Satan.
Chats on Old Lace and Needlework Emily Leigh Lowes
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Within the quatrefoil was a seated Figure, with something like scales in one hand, apparently representing our Lord in His glory.
John Keble's Parishes Charlotte Mary Yonge 1862
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The hubby was researching our church's stained glass windows and told me, "They have this thing that I finally found out is called a 'quatrefoil', but I can't really find out anything about the symbollism..."
A to Z: Q is for Quatrefoil Unionpearl 2008
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An indoor caf looking out on the courtyard boasts a welcoming marble fireplace with a bronze USC seal and a quatrefoil motif that carries over nicely into the decorative wall tiling.
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From the vantage point of the bench, we can see in the center quatrefoil that each semi-circle contains a Calluna vulgaris ‘Sunset’.
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At the top of these lancets is a small quatrefoil oculus or rose.
Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany 2008
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Last year it was decided after much careful pondering that after the grand display in spring of white viridiflora tulips the quadrants surrounding the center quatrefoil were just plain blah.
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It is in a stand by the arbor path and in the center quatrefoil of the knot garden.
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The boy might have been five years old or seven; he was small and underfed, clad in a filthy tunic made from a grain sack stamped with a quatrefoil crest, with rags tied around his feet.
Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009
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Still in the knot garden, on the lavender laced quatrefoil center this hard working pollen jockey seems to have a pointy protuberance on his hind end.
chained_bear commented on the word quatrefoil
A compound leaf or flower consisting of four (usually rounded) leaflets or petals radiating from a common centre; also, a representation or conventional imitation of this, esp. as a charge in Heraldry.
February 6, 2007