foursquare

See also: four-square and four square

English

Etymology

From Middle English foure square; equivalent to four +‎ square.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔːskwɛː/

Adjective

foursquare (comparative more foursquare, superlative most foursquare)

1. Having four equal sides; square.
   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 41:

     From the foursquare royal tower on the city's eastern edge to the Dominican monastery of the Blackfriars in the west, its skyline was a forest of spires and belltowers.

   • 2020, Kim Stanley Robinson, chapter 7, in The Ministry for the Future, Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN:

     Out there in the dark the city looked foursquare and massive.

2. (by extension) Solid, robust.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:

     Standing foursquare in the heart of the town, at the intersection of the two main streets, a "jog" at each street corner left around the market-house a little public square, which at this hour was well occupied by carts and wagons from the country and empty drays awaiting hire […].

   • 1983, Hugh Johnson, Hugh Johnson's modern encyclopedia of wine:

     It is surprising to find white wine of apparently low acidity keeping well at all. Yet at ten years (a good age for it today) it has a haunting combination of foursquare breadth and depth with some delicate, intriguing, lemony zest.

   • 1999, Tom Stevenson, Christie's world encyclopedia of champagne and sparkling wine:

     Another initially foursquare wine that develops lovely fruit in the glass, with a toasty-biscuity finish beginning to build.

3. (cryptography) Pertaining to a four-square cipher.
4. Pertaining to the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

Translations

Having four equal sides

• Bulgarian: квадратен (kvadraten)
• German: viereckig (de), vierkantig, quadratisch (de)
• Telugu: నలుచదరము (te) (nalucadaramu)

Noun

foursquare (countable and uncountable, plural foursquares)

1. (uncountable) Alternative form of four square
2. (countable, cryptography) A four-square cipher.
3. (countable, architecture, US) A boxy style of domestic architecture with four rooms to a floor, one of which is usually a stair hall.