Definition of "squab"

squab

/ˈskwɒb/

noun
plural squabs
1. (sometimes attributive) A baby pigeon, dove, or chicken.
2. The meat of such a baby bird used as food.
  Quotations
  Squab may be consumed by ripping the bird apart with your hands and sucking the meat from the bones.
  2022, Jennifer Egan, The Candy House, Corsair, page 207
3. A baby rook.
4. A thick cushion, especially a flat one covering the seat of a chair or sofa.
  Quotations
  On her large ſquab you find her ſpread, / Like a fat corpſe upon a bed, / That lies and ſtinks in ſtate.
  a. 1744, Alexander Pope (imitating Earl of Dorset), Artemisia, 1795, Robert Anderson (editor), A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, page 86
  [H]erds of shabby vampires, Jew and Christian, over-run the house, [...] punching the squabs of chairs and sofas with their dirty fists, touzling the feather-beds, opening and shutting all the drawers, balancing the silver spoons and forks, looking into the very threads of the drapery and linen, and disparaging everything.
  1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Retribution”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, page 591
5. A person of a short, fat figure.
  Quotations
  Gorgonius sits abdominous and wan, / Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan:
  a. 1800, William Cowper, “The Progress of Error”, in Poems of William Cowper, Esq, published 1824, page 28
verb
third-person singular simple present squabs, present participle squabbing, simple past and past participle squabbed
1. (obsolete) To fall plump; to strike at one dash, or with a heavy stroke.
2. (transitive) To furnish with squabs, or cushions.
3. (transitive) To stuff thickly and sew through, the stitches being concealed by buttons, etc.
adjective
comparative more squab, superlative most squab
1. Fat; thick; plump; bulky.
  Quotations
  Nor the squab daughter nor the wife were nice.
  1712, Thomas Betterton, The Miller of Trompington
  So on his Nɪɢʜᴛᴍᴀʀᴇ through the evening fog / Flits the squab fiend o'er fen, and lake, and bog […] .
  1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 93
2. Unfledged; unfeathered.
  Quotations
  broken limbs of trees, eggs, and young squab pigeons precipitated from above
  1836, Richard King, Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Ocean
3. Clumsy.
4. Curt; abrupt.
5. Shy; coy.
adverb
not comparable
1. (slang) With a heavy fall; plump.
  Quotations
  The eagle took the tortoise up into the air, and dropped him down, squab, upon a rock.
  1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […]

Definition of "squab"

squab

noun

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verb

adjective

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adverb

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