squib
noun
- brief satirical or witty piece of writing or speech
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /skwɪb/
noun
Etymology: Possibly imitative of a small explosion.
- A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode.
“English Navy squibs set fire to two dozen enemy ships in a Dutch harbor during the 16th-century battle against the Spanish Armada.”
“The making and selling of fireworks and squibs, or throwing them about on any street, is […] punishable by fine.”
- A similar device used to ignite an explosive or launch a rocket, etc.
- A kind of slow match or safety fuse.
- Any small firecracker sold to the general public, usually in special clusters designed to explode in series after a single master fuse is lit.
- A malfunction in which the fired projectile does not have enough force behind it to exit the barrel, and thus becomes stuck.
- The heating element used to set off the sodium azide pellets in a vehicle's airbag.
- In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.
- A short piece of witty writing; a lampoon.
“Ye nevvs-paper vvitlings! ye pert ſcribbling folks! / VVho copied his ſquibs, and re-echoed his jokes, […]”
“Of the dozen or so surviving articles, squibs, and letters to the editor, the most remarkable appeared in the Whip and Satirist’s February 12, 1842, issue, and disclosed the existence of a cabal of gay men in New York's otherwise wholesome nightscape of brothels and riots.”
- A writer of lampoons.
“November 1, 1709, Richard Steele, The Tatler The squibs are those who in the common phrase of the world are called libellers, lampooners, and pamphleteers.”
- In a legal casebook, a short summary of a legal action placed between more extensively quoted cases.
- A short article, often published in journals, that introduces theoretically problematic empirical data or discusses an overlooked theoretical problem. In contrast to a typical article, a squib need not answer the questions that it poses.
“In this squib I will prove that the number of possible metrical parsings into feet under these assumptions […]”
- An unimportant, paltry, or mean-spirited person.
“Its a hard case when men of good deserving / must either driven be perforce to sterving / or asked for their pas by everie squib.”
- A sketched concept or visual solution, usually very quick and not too detailed.
- A coward or wimp.
“I'm putting my foot down, Janelle. We're raising a nation of squibs!”
verb
Etymology: Possibly imitative of a small explosion.
- To make a sound like a small explosion.
“A Snider squibbed in the jungle.”
- To throw squibs; to utter sarcastic or severe reflections; to contend in petty dispute.
“to squib a little debate”
- To dodge something difficult, to bottle.
“He squibbed the opportunity to push the claim that Kyoto should remain the flagship for international action - because deep down those on the other side know that the world has moved on beyond Kyoto.”