Quadrate

Quadrate, kwod′rāt, adj. squared: having four equal sides and four right angles: divisible into four equal parts: (fig.) balanced: exact: suited.—n. a square or quadrate figure: the quadrate bone, that between the lower jaw and the cranium in birds and reptiles, suspending the lower jaw.—v.i. to square or agree with: to correspond.—adj. Quadrat′ic, pertaining to, containing, or denoting a square.—n. (alg.) an equation in which the highest power of the unknown quantity is the second: an old instrument for measuring latitudes: (pl.) that branch of algebra which treats of quadratic equations.—adj. Quadratif′erous, having a distinct quadrate bone.—ns. Quadrā′trix, a curve by which may be found straight lines equal to the circumference of circles or other curves; Quad′rāture, a squaring: (geom.) the finding, exactly or approximately, of a square that shall be equal to a given figure of some other shape: the position of a heavenly body when 90° distant from another: (Milt.) a square space; Quadrā′tus, the quadratus femoris, or square muscle of the femur in man, the quadratus lumborum, that of the loins, the depressor labii inferioris, that of the chin, which draws down the upper lip.—Quadrature of the circle, the problem of squaring the circle, insoluble both by the arithmetical and the geometrical method.—Method of quadratures, the name applied to any arithmetical method of determining the area of a curve. [O. Fr. quadrat—L. quadratus, pa.p. of quadrāre, to square—quatuor, four.]