# squib
## English
### Etymology

Possibly imitative of a small explosion.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /skwɪb/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪb

### Noun

squib (plural squibs)
* (military) 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.
** 1769, William Blackstone, “Of Offences Against the Public Health and the Public Police or Economy”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book IV (Of Public Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 531: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.
* (mining) A kind of slow match or safety fuse.
* (US) Any small firecracker sold to the general public, usually in special clusters designed to explode in series after a single master fuse is lit.
* (firearms) A malfunction in which the fired projectile does not have enough force behind it to exit the barrel, and thus becomes stuck.
* (automotive) The heating element used to set off the sodium azide pellets in a vehicle's airbag.
* (film, theater) In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.
* (dated) A short piece of witty writing; a lampoon.
** 1774, [Oliver] Goldsmith, “Postscript”, in Retaliation: A Poem. […], 5th edition, London: […] G[eorge] Kearsly, […], →OCLC, page 21:Ye nevvs-paper vvitlings! ye pert ſcribbling folks! / VVho copied his ſquibs, and re-echoed his jokes, […]
** 2005, Mark Caldwell, New York Night, page 133: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.
* (dated) 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.
* (law) In a legal casebook, a short summary of a legal action placed between more extensively quoted cases.
* (linguistics) 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.
** 2008, William J. Idsardi, Combinatorics for Metrical Feet, in Biolinguistics Vol 2, No 2
    In this squib I will prove that the number of possible metrical parsings into feet under these assumptions […]
* (archaic except in idioms) An unimportant, paltry, or mean-spirited person.
** 1591, Edmund Spenser, Mother Hubberds Tale ll. 369-371:Its a hard case when men of good deserving / must either driven be perforce to sterving / or asked for their pas by everie squib.
* (graphic design) A sketched concept or visual solution, usually very quick and not too detailed.
* (chiefly Australia) A coward or wimp.
** 2021, Joe Brumm, “Pass the Parcel”, in Bluey, season 3, episode 13, spoken by Lucky's Dad (Brad Elliot):I'm putting my foot down, Janelle. We're raising a nation of squibs!

#### Derived terms

* damp squib
* squib kick

#### Translations

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

### Verb

squib (third-person singular simple present squibs, present participle squibbing, simple past and past participle squibbed)
* To make a sound like a small explosion.
    A Snider squibbed in the jungle.
* (colloquial, dated, transitive, intransitive) To throw squibs; to utter sarcastic or severe reflections; to contend in petty dispute.
    to squib a little debate
* (Australia) To dodge something difficult, to bottle.
** 2007 September 11, Australia. Parliament. House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: House of Representatives: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.

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “squib”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

### Anagrams

* quibs