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squab

adverb

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L200061 on Wikidata ↗

noun

  1. food; young domestic pigeon, typically under four weeks old
L307266 on Wikidata ↗

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L340702 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈskwɒb/ / /ˈskwɑb/

adj

Etymology: Unknown. Possibly related to dialectal Swedish skvabb (“fatty, flabby”). First attested in the 17th century.

  1. Fat; thick; plump; bulky.

    “Nor the squab daughter nor the wife were nice.”

    “So on his Nightmare through the evening fog / Flits the squab fiend o'er fen, and lake, and bog […].”

  2. Unfledged; unfeathered.

    “broken limbs of trees, eggs, and young squab pigeons precipitated from above”

  3. Clumsy.
  4. Curt; abrupt.
  5. Shy; coy.

adv

Etymology: Unknown. Possibly related to dialectal Swedish skvabb (“fatty, flabby”). First attested in the 17th century.

  1. With a heavy fall; plump.

    “The eagle took the tortoise up into the air, and dropped him down, squab, upon a rock.”

noun

Etymology: Unknown. Possibly related to dialectal Swedish skvabb (“fatty, flabby”). First attested in the 17th century.

  1. A fledgling (young) bird.
  2. A fledgling (young) bird.
  3. A fledgling (young) bird.
  4. The meat of young dove or pigeon, typically under four weeks old, used as food.

    “Squab may be consumed by ripping the bird apart with your hands and sucking the meat from the bones.”

  5. A thick cushion, especially a flat one covering the seat of a chair or sofa.

    “a. 1744, Alexander Pope (imitating Earl of Dorset), Artemisia, 1795, Robert Anderson (editor), A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, page 86, On her large ſquab you find her ſpread, / Like a fat corpſe upon a bed, / That lies and ſtinks in ſtate.”

    “[H]erds of shabby vampires, Jew and Christian, over-run the house, [...] punching the squabs of chairs and sofas with their dirty fists, touzling the feather-beds, opening and shutting all the drawers, balancing the silver spoons and forks, looking into the very threads of the drapery and linen, and disparaging everything.”

  6. A person of a short, fat figure.

    “Gorgonius sits abdominous and wan, / Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan:”

verb

Etymology: Unknown. Possibly related to dialectal Swedish skvabb (“fatty, flabby”). First attested in the 17th century.

  1. To fall plump; to strike at one dash, or with a heavy stroke.
  2. To furnish with squabs, or cushions.
  3. To stuff thickly and sew through, the stitches being concealed by buttons, etc.