From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishquartetquar‧tet /kwɔːˈtet $ kwɔːr-/ noun [countable] 1 APMfour singers or musicians who sing or play together a string quartet (=four people playing musical instruments with strings, such as violins)2 APMa piece of music written for four performers3 GROUP OF PEOPLEGROUP OF THINGSfour people or things of the same typequartet of a quartet of short films set in the 1920s → quintet, trio
Examples from the Corpus
quartet• There was a barbershop quartet on board.• a jazz quartet• All over the country children worked in similar acts but this particular quartet, Les Jolies Petites, was fortunate.• If the Hummel sparkled, their E flat Dvorak piano quartet - a riot of Czechoslovak charm - fairly glinted with riches.string quartet• Howarth has got a string quartet going at the Lab and they gave a concert there.• If he wanted to hear a string quartet there was no question of going out in the evening to a concert.• There was a party in the ballroom: sparkling chandeliers, string quartet.• Mind has waited for 3 billion years on this planet before composing its first string quartet.• Remember those glittering parties, the lanterns lining the drive, the string quartet playing Viennese waltzes?• Stravinsky was never at home with the warm homogeneity of the string quartet.• The string quartet within the orchestra resembles Faure.quartet of• 50 amateur actors led by a quartet of professionalsOrigin quartet (1700-1800) Italian quartetto, from quarto “fourth”, from Latin quartus; → QUARTER1 