squander, to scatter, disperse, Merch. Ven. i. 3. 32; Dryden, Annus Mirab., st. 67. In prov. use in Scotland and various parts of England (EDD.).
square, rule, exact conduct; ‘I have not kept my square’, Ant. and Cl. ii. 3. 6; ‘Never breaks square’ (i.e. never gives offence), Middleton, The Widow, ii (end).
square, to quarrel. Mids. Night’s D. ii. 1. 30; Titus And. ii. 1. 100; Ant. and Cl. ii. 1. 45; Harington, Ariosto, xiv. 72; id., Ep. i. 37; a quarrel, Promos and Cass. ii. 4 (Nares). Hence squarer, a quarreller, Much Ado, i. 1. 82. Also, a squadron, ‘Our squares of battle’, Hen. V, iv. 2. 28; ‘Squares of war’, Ant. and Cl. iii. 11. 40. Cp. O. Prov. esqueira, ‘corps de bataille’ (Levy). Med. L. squadra, ‘caterva, turba, cohors; acies, copiae militares’ (Ducange); cp. Ital. squadra, ‘a squadron or troop of men’ (Florio); F. escadre (Cotgr.). See Dict. (s.vv. Square, Squadron).
squares. How go the squares? how goes the game? The reference is to the chessboard; Middleton, Family of Love, i. 3 (Purge); May, The Old Couple, iv. 1 (Sir Argent).
squash, the shell or pod of peas or beans; an unripe pea-pod. Twelfth Nt. i. 5. 166; Wint. Tale, i. 2. 161. An E. Anglian word, see EDD. (s.v. Squash, vb.1 3).
squat, to squeeze, crush, bruise. Middleton, No Wit like a Woman’s, i. 3 (Savourwit). In prov. use in various parts of England (EDD.). OF. esquatir, ‘aplatir, briser’ (Didot). See Dict.
squelch, to crush, bruise, strike with a heavy blow. Fletcher, Nice Valour, v. 1 (Galoshio); a heavy blow, Butler, Hud. i. 2. 836, 933. In prov. use (EDD.).
squelter, to ‘welter’, wallow, roll about; ‘The slaughter’d Trojans squeltring in their blood’, Locrine, ii. 6. 4.
squib, a paltry fellow. Spenser, Mother Hubberd, 371. In prov. use in west Yorks. in the sense of a small dwarfish person, see EDD. (s.v. Squib, sb.2).
squib, used fig. for a flashy, futile project or design, Bacon, Henry VII (ed. Lumby, 195).