quar·to

(kwôr′tō)

n. pl. quar·tos

1. The page size obtained by folding a whole sheet into four leaves.

2. A book composed of pages of this size.

[Short for Middle English (in) quarto, (in) the fourth part (of a sheet), from Medieval Latin (in) quārtō, from Latin, ablative of quārtus, fourth; see k^wetwer- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

quarto

(ˈkwɔːtəʊ)

n, pl -tos

1. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) a book size resulting from folding a sheet of paper, usually crown or demy, into four leaves or eight pages, each one quarter the size of the sheet. Often written: 4to or 4°

2. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) (formerly) a size of cut paper 10 in. by 8 in. (25.4 cm by 20.3 cm)

[C16: from New Latin phrase in quartō in quarter]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

quar•to

(ˈkwɔr toʊ)

n., pl. -tos,
adj. n.

1. a book size of about 9½x 12 in. (24 x 30 cm), determined by folding printed sheets twice to form four leaves or eight pages. Symbol: 4to, 4°

2. a book of this size.

adj.

3. bound in quarto.

[1580–90; short for New Latin in quārtō in fourth (Latin quārtō, abl. singular of quartus fourth)]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

quarto - the size of a book whose pages are made by folding a sheet of paper twice to form four leaves

4to

size - the property resulting from being one of a series of graduated measurements (as of clothing); "he wears a size 13 shoe"

Translations

quart

in quarto

quarto

[ˈkwɔːtəʊ]

A. ADJ [volume] → en cuarto; [paper] → tamaño m holandesa

B. N → libro m en cuarto

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

quarto

[ˈkwɔː^rtəʊ]

adj [edition, volume, paper] → in-quarto inv

n → in-quarto m inv

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

quarto

n (Typ) → Quart(format) nt

attr paper, volume → in Quart

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

quarto

[ˈkwɔːtəʊ] adj → in quarto

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Jocolpus Bumer, of the University of Belgrade, who established his conclusions on the subject in a work of three quarto volumes and committed suicide on being reminded that the j in the Roman alphabet had originally no curl.

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And here be it said, that whenever it has been convenient to consult one in the course of these dissertations, I have invariably used a huge quarto edition of Johnson, expressly purchased for that purpose; because that famous lexicographer's uncommon personal bulk more fitted him to compile a lexicon to be used by a whale author like me.

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I had published in France a work in quarto, in two volumes, entitled Mysteries of the Great Submarine Grounds.

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He welcomed wet days because on them he could stay at home without pangs of conscience and spend the afternoon with white of egg and a glue-pot, patching up the Russia leather of some battered quarto. He had many volumes of old travels, with steel engravings, and Mrs.

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"I have a quarto Shakespeare, I think," he said, "that I marked at Sotheby's, also a manuscript Thomas a Kempis, and a first edition of Herrick.

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Why this book of whales is not denominated the Quarto is very plain.

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She went to a shelf and took down a heavy quarto, bound in black leather, and inscribed, in red letters, MY FAULTS.

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The quarto Bible was laid open before him at the fly-leaf, and while he was reading with slowly travelling eyes Mrs.

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It was much easier to chat than to study; much pleasanter to let her imagination range and work at Harriet's fortune, than to be labouring to enlarge her comprehension or exercise it on sober facts; and the only literary pursuit which engaged Harriet at present, the only mental provision she was making for the evening of life, was the collecting and transcribing all the riddles of every sort that she could meet with, into a thin quarto of hotpressed paper, made up by her friend, and ornamented with ciphers and trophies.

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The work I speak of is called `A Treatise on the Possibility of a General Monarchy in Italy,' and will make one large quarto volume."

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Arnold went straight to the nearest book-shelf, and took down the first volume that his hand lighted on--a solid quarto, bound in sober brown.

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Sometimes, when much excited with his subject, he had an odd way - compounded of John Bunyan, and Balfour of Burley - of taking his great quarto Bible under his arm and pacing up and down the pulpit with it; looking steadily down, meantime, into the midst of the congregation.

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