Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Squeamish

Squeam′ish (skwēm′ĭsh), a. [OE. squaimous, sweymous, probably from OE. sweem, swem, dizziness, a swimming in the head; cf. Icel. svemr a bustle, a stir, Norw. sveim a hovering about, a sickness that comes upon one, Icel. svimi a giddiness, AS. swīmi. The word has been perhaps confused witrh qualmish. Cf. Swim to be dizzy.] Having a stomach that is easily or nauseated; hence, nice to excess in taste; fastidious; easily disgusted; apt to be offended at trifling improprieties.

Quoth he, that honor's very squeamish That takes a basting for a blemish. Hudibras.

His muse is rustic, and perhaps too plain The men of squeamish taste to entertain. Southern.

So ye grow squeamish, Gods, and sniff at heaven. M. Arnold.

Syn. — Fastidious; dainty; overnice; scrupulous. See Fastidious.

— Squeam′ish·ly, adv. — Squeam′ish·ness, n.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.