treble

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

treble

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɛbəl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛbəl

Etymology 1

PIE word
*tréyes

From Middle English treble, from Old French treble, from Latin triplus. Doublet of triple.

Adjective

treble (not comparable)

1. High in pitch.

   Synonyms: high-pitched, strident

   Antonym: deep

   • 1957, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, “Zooey”, in Franny and Zooey, published 1961:

     He put his cigar in his mouth, and, with his right hand, up in the treble keys, he began to play, in octaves, the melody of a song called "The Kinkajou," which, somewhat notably, had shifted into and ostensibly out of popularity before he was born.

2. (music) Pertaining to the highest singing voice or part in harmonized music; soprano.
3. (dated) Threefold, triple.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:triple

   • 1697, John Dryden, chapter 6, in The Aeneid by Virgil:

     A lofty tower, and strong on every side / With treble walls.

   • 1806, The Orthodox Churchman’s Magazine and Review; or, A Treasury of Divine and Useful Knowledge, volume X, London: […] J. G. Barnard, […], and sold by F[rancis,] C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], page 140:

     Every subscriber of one penny per week, who is sixty years of age, or upwards, and under four-score, to be entitled to receive treble his subscription at the end of the year; that is, his own subscription, and twice as much more.

   • 1837 Penny Cyclopedia, vol. 7, s.v. "Constantinople":

     The treble walls and ditches on the land side [...] diminish the extent of ground covered with houses.

Derived terms

• treble C
• treble clef
• treble-heading
• treble hook
• treble recorder
• treble staff

Translations

threefold, triple

Spanish: triplo (es), tríplice, tresdoble (es)

Adverb

treble (not comparable)

1. (dated) Trebly; triply.

   Synonyms: thrice, threefold; see also Thesaurus:thrice

   • 1623 (first performance), John Fletcher, William Rowley, “The Maid in the Mill”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     Whose deserts might buy him treble

Translations

Translations

Spanish: trestanto

Noun

treble (plural trebles)

1. (music) The highest singing voice (especially as for a boy) or part in musical composition.
   • 1959, The Musical quarterly - Volume 45, page xlvi:

     He starts out by saying that there are three sights, the mene, treble, and quadreble, but actually he discusses only two, the treble and quadreble, both of which are read at the transposition of an octave.

   • 1991, Blanche Gangwere, Music history during the Renaissance period, 1425-1520, page 25:

     The voices include a counter (always below the tenor), a countertenor (moving above and below the tenor), mene, treble, and quadreble.

   • 2003, Willi Apel, Don Michael Randel, The Harvard Dictionary of Music, page 780:

     The counter involves transposition of the sighted note to the fifth below (for extremely low notes a twelfth), the mene and countertenor do not transpose, the treble transposes to the octave above, and the quadreble to the twelfth above.

2. (music) A person or instrument having a treble voice or pitch; a boy soprano.
3. The highest tuned in a ring of bells.
4. Any high-pitched or shrill voice or sound.
5. (dated) A threefold quantity or number; something having three parts or having been tripled.
6. (dated) A drink with three portions of alcohol; a triple
7. (darts) Any of the narrow areas enclosed by the two central circles on a dartboard, worth three times the usual value of the segment.
8. (sports) Three goals, victories, awards etc. in a given match or season.
   • 2014 March 9, Jacob Steinberg, “Wigan shock Manchester City in FA Cup again to reach semi-finals”, in The Guardian:

     As for City, a domestic treble is off the cards and they must haul themselves off the floor quickly with the second leg of their last-16 Champions League tie against Barcelona on Wednesday.

   1. (soccer) A win in the top league, top national cup and top continental cup in the same season.

Translations

The highest singing voice (especially as for a boy) or part in musical composition

Bulgarian: дискант m (diskant) Dutch: jongenssopraan m, knapensopraan m Finnish: sopraano (fi) German: Sopranstimme f, Sopran (de) m, Diskantstimme f, Diskant (de) m Irish: tribil f Russian: диска́нт (ru) (diskánt), сопра́но (ru) (sopráno) Spanish: tiple (es) m Swedish: diskant (sv) c

Any high-pitched or shrill voice or sound

Finnish: diskantti (fi) German: (please verify) Höhen (de) Swedish: diskant (sv) c

three titles in a given season

French: triplé (fr) m Galician: triplete m German: Triple (de) n Portuguese: triplete (pt) m Spanish: triplete (es) m

Verb

treble (third-person singular simple present trebles, present participle trebling, simple past and past participle trebled)

1. (transitive, dated) To multiply by three; to make into three parts, layers, or thrice the amount.

   Synonyms: triple; see also Thesaurus:treble

   • 2018 April 26, Tobias A Rowland, Steven Marwaha, “Epidemiology and risk factors for bipolar disorder”, in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology‎, volume 8, number 9, →DOI, pages 251–269:

     There is increasing evidence that cannabis use can act as a risk factor for the development of bipolar as well as psychotic disorders. A recent systematic review by Gibbs and colleagues identified several studies supporting a link between cannabis use and subsequent relapse of manic symptoms. This review also included a meta-analysis of two large prospective cohort studies, which found that cannabis use almost trebled the risk of new-onset subthreshold manic symptoms after adjusting for potential confounding factors.

   • 2022 January 11, Kate Connolly, “German climate minister says speed of carbon cuts needs to be trebled”, in The Guardian‎:

     German climate minister says speed of carbon cuts needs to be trebled [title]

2. (intransitive, dated) To become multiplied by three or increased threefold.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 8:

     I am more ſerious then my cuſtome; you
     Muſt be ſo too, if heed me: which to do
     Trebbles thee o're.

3. (intransitive) To make a shrill or high-pitched noise.

   Synonyms: keen, screech, shrill

4. (transitive) To utter in a treble key; to whine.
   • 1618, George Chapman, A Hymn to Hermes:

     He outrageously / (When I accused him) trebled his reply.

Translations

to multiply by three

Bulgarian: утроявам (bg) (utrojavam) Danish: tredoble Dutch: verdrievoudigen (nl) Finnish: kolminkertaistaa French: tripler (fr) Georgian: სამმაგდება (sammagdeba), გასამმაგება (gasammageba) (verbal noun) German: verdreifachen (de) Hungarian: megháromszoroz (hu) Irish: méadaigh faoi thrí Italian: triplicare (it) Maori: tātoru Norwegian: Bokmål: tredoble Nynorsk: tredobla, tredoble Spanish: triplicar (es) Swedish: tredubbla (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Swedish: (please verify) diskant (sv)

Etymology 2

Noun

treble (plural trebles)

1. Alternative form of tribble (“frame for drying paper”).

Anagrams

• Belter, Beltre, Elbert, Lebert, belter

Old French

Etymology

From Latin triplus.

Adjective

treble m (oblique and nominative feminine singular treble)

1. treble; triple
   • 1314, H. de Mondeville, Chirurgie, page 24, 3rd column, lines 9-12:

     L'utilité […] est treble

     The usefulness […] is treble

Descendants

• → Middle English: treble
  • English: treble

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (treble)