cuadrillan.

1838 C. R. Scott Excursions Mountains Ronda & Granada I. xiv. 334 Falling in with a group of restless freebooters..I enlisted, a willing recruit, into the quadrilla [footnote: Band].

1841 G. Borrow Zincali ii. viii. 354 I alone once robbed a cuadrilla of twenty Gallégos, who were returning to their own country, after cutting the harvests of Castile.

1844 Littell's Living Age 28 Sept. 493/2 He has amassed more than fifty thousand dollars; a large sum, if we consider the great expenses which the matadores are put to in dress, and in travelling from one town to another, accompanied by their quadrilla or assistant bull-fighters.

1893 A. Chapman & W. B. Buck Wild Spain v. 67 The Espada, or Matador, receives on the day from £120 to £200, including the services of his cuadrilla or troupe, which consists of two picadors, three banderilleros, and a cachetero.

1898 Daily News 11 Aug. 7/1 The crowd, blaming the bull, instead of the toreador and his cuadrilla, insisted on that animal being killed.

1921 E. E. Cummings Let. 22 Apr. (1969) 75 Gentlemen in cockades..come out again heading a procession of quadrillas, bandilleros, and espadas, all of whom bow.

1923 W. J. Locke Moordius & Co. x. 144 An indistinguished member of the quadrilla.

1932 E. Hemingway Death in Afternoon iii. 26 Each matador..has a cuadrilla, or team, of from five to six men who are paid by him and work under his orders.

1934 R. Campbell Broken Rec. ii. 48 I am only a banderillero in the cuadrilla of that great matador [Wyndham Lewis].

1962 R. Sereno Rulers 102 A torero and his peers are the stars; then there is the quadrilla; then the friends, well-wishers and parasites, and finally the crowd that fills the arena.

1967 Economist 25 Nov. 846/1 They were judged, as members of the cuadrilla (armed band), to be jointly responsible for all its acts.

2000 Buffalo News (Nexis) 12 Nov. 6 b Entertainment included..bullfights orchestrated by the matador and his quadrilla of bullfighters, all decked out in traditional black hats, gold jackets, scarlet breeches and white stockings.