1. quaternary(n = noun.time) age of man, quaternary period - last 2 million years;
is a kind of geological period, period
is a part of age of mammals, cenozoic, cenozoic era
has parts: holocene, holocene epoch, recent, recent epoch, glacial epoch, pleistocene, pleistocene epoch
2. quaternary(n = noun.quantity) 4, four, foursome, iv, little joe, quadruplet, quartet, quatern, quaternion, quaternity, tetrad - the cardinal number that is the sum of three and one;
is a kind of digit, figure
1. quaternary(s = adj.all) quaternate - consisting of or especially arranged in sets of four; "quaternate leaves"; "a quaternary compound"
2. quaternary(s = adj.all) 4th, fourth - coming next after the third and just before the fifth in position or time or degree or magnitude; "the quaternary period of geologic time extends from the end of the tertiary period to the present"
1. Consisting of four; by fours, or in sets of four. [1913 Webster]
2. Later than, or subsequent to, the Tertiary; Post-tertiary; as, the Quaternary age, or Age of man. [1913 Webster]
1. The number four. Boyle. [1913 Webster]
2. The Quaternary age, era, or formation. See the Chart of Geology. [1913 Webster]
quaternary, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 having four parts.
2 (Quaternary) Geol. of or relating to the most recent period in the Cenozoic era with evidence of many species of present-day plants and animals (cf. PLEISTOCENE, HOLOCENE).
Usage:
Cf. Appendix II.
--n. (pl. -ies)
1 a set of four things.
2 (Quaternary) Geol. the Quaternary period or system.
Etymology:
ME f. L quaternarius f. quaterni distrib. of quattuor four
N quaternity, four, tetrad, quartet, quaternion, square, quarter, tetract, tetragon, quadrangle, rectangle, tetrahedron, quadrature, quadrifoil, quadriform, quadruplet, quatrefoil, tetrapod, quadrangle, quad, quadrupole, quadrivium, four, quaternary, quaternal, quadratic, quartile, tetract, tetractic, tetractinal, tetrad, tetragonal, square, quadrate.
N oldness, age, antiquity, cobwebs of antiquity, maturity, decline, decay, senility, seniority, eldership, primogeniture, archaism, thing of the past, relic of the past, megatherium, Sanskrit, tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law, old, ancient, antique, of long standing, time-honored, venerable, elder, eldest, firstborn, prime, primitive, primeval, primigenous, paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic, primordial, primordinate, aboriginal, diluvian, antediluvian, protohistoric, prehistoric, antebellum, colonial, precolumbian, patriarchal, preadamite, paleocrystic, fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane, archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter, immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contr, inveterate, rooted, antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete, out of date, out of fashion, out of it, stale, old-fashioned, behind the age, old-world, exploded, gone out, gone by, passe, run out, senile, time worn, crumbling, secondhand, old as the hills, old as Methuselah, old as Adam, old as history, Archeozoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, Paleogene, Neocene, Quaternary, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent, since the world was made, since the year one, since the days of Methuselah, vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.