square
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: skwâr
ipa: /skwɛə/
ipa: /skwɛː/
ipa: /skweɹ/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
enpr: skwûr
ipa: /skwɜː(ɹ)/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /skwɛɹ/
ipa: [skwɛ˞]
ipa: /skwɛəɹ/
ipa: /skweː/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
enpr: skwîr
ipa: /skwiə̯/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
note: without the cheer–chair merger
ipa: /skweə̯/
note: Indic
ipa: /skweːɾ/
note: non-rhotic
ipa: /-æː/
ipa: /skwaja(ɾ)/
ipa: /sk(w)oja(ɾ)/
Forms: form: squarer
form: squarest
Etymology: From Middle English square, sqware, squyre; from Old French esquarre, esquerre, (modern French équerre), from Vulgar Latin *exquadra, from Latin ex- + quadro, from quadrus (compare English quad and quadra). Doublet of squad and squadra.
Displaced Old English fēowerecge (fēower nominative + ecg accusative, as in "four-edged").
Senses: examples: text: The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, […].
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
hypernyms: rectangular
polygonal
coordinate_terms: circular
oval
triangular
trapezoidal
rectangular
rhomboid
glosses: Shaped like a square (the polygon).
examples: text: a square corner
text: Take care to make the cut completely square to the edges of the wire to give a good butt join for the ends of the wire.
ref: 2017, Julia Rai, Making Metal Clay Jewellery:
synonyms: orthogonal
perpendicular
normal
antonyms: crooked
out of square
oblique
glosses: Forming a right angle (90°).
examples: text: The foundation has to be level and the framing has to be square.
text: The stacks had to be neat and square or the old guy grumbled and insisted on getting it just so.
ref: 2019, Bruce W. Herdman, Ozarks Lite:
synonyms: orthogonal
perpendicular
normal
antonyms: crooked
out of square
oblique
out of square
crooked
racked
glosses: Forming a right angle (90°).
Forming right angles in all planes as intended; not racked or leaning.
raw_tags: of box-shaped objects such as buildings or metal frames
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: orthogonal
perpendicular
normal
antonyms: crooked
out of square
oblique
glosses: Forming a right angle (90°).
Forming right angles with the mast or the keel, and parallel to the horizon; said of the yards of a square-rigged vessel when they are so braced.
examples: text: A floor that measures 4 feet square has an area of 16 square feet.
text: square mile
coordinate_terms: cubic
linear
glosses: Used in the names of units of area formed by multiplying a unit of length by itself.
examples: text: I'm just looking for a square deal on my car repair.
text: square dealing
text: Why, you would not be boosing till lightman's in a square crib like mine, as if you were in a flash panny?
ref: 1828, Edward Bulwer Lytton Baron Lytton, Pelham, Or, Adventures of a Gentleman:
text: I believe you're a good, square man
ref: 1900 [1878], Allan Pinkerton, Criminal Reminiscences and Detective Sketches, New York: G. W. Dillingham, page 29:
text: I am not very good at analysing things, but I felt that she talked a little uncomfortably and with a suspicion of effort, smiled rather conventionally, and was obviously glad to go. These things seem trifling enough to repeat, but I had throughout the faint feeling that everything was not square.
ref: 1908, Perceval Landon, Thurnley Abbey:
synonyms: above board
on the level
on the square
on the up and up
straight
glosses: Honest; straightforward; fair.
examples: text: By the confident tone in her voice, you can tell she is square with that.
ref: 2007, Lauren Heaton, Holly Bollinger, Catherine Lee Phillips, Susan Gartner, Women of the Harvest, page 63:
text: " […] I will never act on it, but if you're satisfied with the way things are then I am, too. […] So, are we square?”
ref: 2009, Ramona Holliday, Winter Murders:
glosses: Satisfied; comfortable with; not experiencing any conflict.
examples: text: to make or leave the accounts square
text: The sides were square at the end of the half.
text: The teams were square while at even strength. have to play better than even if we want to win games." said Montreal goalie Jose Theodore
ref: 2000 December 16, “Islanders, Devils Make It Tough For Canadian Teams”, in Bryan Times:
text: But the Jays were square again by the end of the inning, as Myers hit a 2-and-0 pitch into the left-center field seats
ref: 2003 April 9, “Lowe Struggles Again In Sox Setback”, in Record-Journal:
text: The sides were square to the 14th hole when Goosen took birdie,
ref: 2003 November 24, “Els's mates get better with time”, in The Age, Melbourne, Vic.:
text: In each of the last three afternoon foursomes, the Americans were square through 15, but could only come in with two halves and a loss.
ref: 2006 September 23, Jim McCabe, “As usual, Americans trailing after first day”, in The Columbus Dispatch:
glosses: Even; tied
examples: text: It was a square town, but that didn't bother me. I knew I didn't have to live a square life.
ref: 1974, Jack Olsen, The Girls on the Campus, page 100:
text: The square Johns lie more than the in-guys do.
ref: 1990, A. W. Gray, In Defense of Judges:
synonyms: bourgeois
glosses: Socially conventional; boring.
topics: ball-games
cricket
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: In line with the batsman's popping crease.
examples: text: It may be prison, but at least I'm getting three square meals a day.
text: By Heaven, square eaters. More meat, I say.
ref: c. 1613 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Bonduca”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II, scene iii:
text: It is obvious two o'clock will arrive in about five and a half hours from now, and I presume every gentleman in the House would like to get a square breakfast.
ref: 1879, United States. Congress, Congressional Record, Volume 9, page 1594:
text: If some of you who read this paragraph would quit scheming and get down to honest, square effort this year, your creditors would get their due and your families would be better kept.
ref: 1899 February, “Stray Shots From Solomon”, in Shoe and Leather Journal, volume 12, number 2, page 51:
text: "Sarah," said her grandmother. "You should eat a good square meal."
ref: 1986, Jan Irving, Robin Currie, Mudluscious, page 75:
text: I said that because I didn't want any knives involved, and if Wizzie agreed to a square go now, with half the school listening, she couldn't go back on it.
ref: 2012, Cathy MacPhail, Worse Than Boys:
glosses: Solid, decent, substantial.
examples: text: a man of a square frame
glosses: Having a shape broad for the height, with angular rather than curving outlines.
topics: automotive
transport
vehicles
coordinate_terms: oversquare
undersquare
glosses: Of an internal combustion engine design, in which the diameter of the piston is similar, roughly, approximately, equal to its stroke distance.
Derived terms: all square
be there or be square
fair and square
oversquare
over-square
over square
square bracket
square centimetre
square centimeter
square circle
square dancing
square deal
square drive
square engine
square flipper
squareflipper
square foot
squarehead
square inch
square knot
square Kufic
square leg
squarely
square matrix
square meal
square metre
square meter
square mile
squareness
square number
square pyramid
square rod
square root
square sail
square serif
square shooter
square-shouldered
square-toed
square wave
square yard
squround
T-squared
turn square corners
undersquare
under-square
under square