Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Squib

Squib (skwĭb), n. [OE. squippen, swippen, to move swiftly, Icel. svipa to swoop, flash, dart, whip; akin to AS. swipian to whip, and E. swift, a. See Swift, a.] 1. A little pipe, or hollow cylinder of paper, filled with powder or combustible matter, to be thrown into the air while burning, so as to burst there with a crack.

Lampoons, like squibs, may make a present blaze. Waller.

The making and selling of fireworks, and squibs . . . is punishable. Blackstone.

2. (Mining) A kind of slow match or safety fuse.

3. A sarcastic speech or publication; a petty lampoon; a brief, witty essay.

Who copied his squibs, and reëchoed his jokes. Goldsmith.

4. A writer of lampoons. [Obs.]

The squibs are those who in the common phrase of the world are called libelers, lampooners, and pamphleteers. Tatler.

5. A paltry fellow. [Obs.] Spenser.

Squib, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Squibbed; p. pr. & vb. n. Squibbing.] To throw squibs; to utter sarcastic or severe reflections; to contend in petty dispute; as, to squib a little debate. [Colloq.]

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 “?”.