squib
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /skwɪb/
rhymes: -ɪb
Forms: form: squibs
Etymology: Possibly imitative of a small explosion.
Senses: examples: text: English Navy squibs set fire to two dozen enemy ships in a Dutch harbor during the 16th-century battle against the Spanish Armada.
text: The making and selling of fireworks and squibs, or throwing them about on any street, is […] punishable by fine.
ref: 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:
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode.
glosses: A similar device used to ignite an explosive or launch a rocket, etc.
topics: business
mining
glosses: A kind of slow match or safety fuse.
glosses: Any small firecracker sold to the general public, usually in special clusters designed to explode in series after a single master fuse is lit.
topics: engineering
firearms
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: A malfunction in which the fired projectile does not have enough force behind it to exit the barrel, and thus becomes stuck.
topics: automotive
transport
vehicles
glosses: The heating element used to set off the sodium azide pellets in a vehicle's airbag.
topics: broadcasting
entertainment
film
lifestyle
media
television
theater
glosses: In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.
examples: text: Ye nevvs-paper vvitlings! ye pert ſcribbling folks! / VVho copied his ſquibs, and re-echoed his jokes, […]
ref: 1774, [Oliver] Goldsmith, “Postscript”, in Retaliation: A Poem. […], 5th edition, London: […] G[eorge] Kearsly, […], →OCLC, page 21:
text: 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.
ref: 2005, Mark Caldwell, New York Night, page 133:
glosses: A short piece of witty writing; a lampoon.
examples: 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.
glosses: A writer of lampoons.
topics: law
glosses: In a legal casebook, a short summary of a legal action placed between more extensively quoted cases.
examples: text: In this squib I will prove that the number of possible metrical parsings into feet under these assumptions […]
ref: 2008, William J. Idsardi, Combinatorics for Metrical Feet, in Biolinguistics Vol 2, No 2
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Its a hard case when men of good deserving / must either driven be perforce to sterving / or asked for their pas by everie squib.
ref: 1591, Edmund Spenser, Mother Hubberds Tale ll. 369-371:
qualifier: archaic except in idioms
glosses: An unimportant, paltry, or mean-spirited person.
topics: arts
graphic-design
glosses: A sketched concept or visual solution, usually very quick and not too detailed.
examples: text: I'm putting my foot down, Janelle. We're raising a nation of squibs!
ref: 2021, Joe Brumm, “Pass the Parcel”, in Bluey, season 3, episode 13, spoken by Lucky's Dad (Brad Elliot):
glosses: A coward or wimp.
Derived terms: damp squib
squib kick