| 释义 |
▪ I. square, n.|skwɛə(r)|
Forms: α. 4 sqwyr (swyer), 4–6 squyre, 4–7 squire (4 suire), 5 squir, sqvyȝer, sqvyyre, sqvyer, 5–6 squyer, 6 sqwier, 6–7 squier; 6 squere. β. 5 skwar, sqvar, sqware, 6 squair(e, 5– square.
[ad. OF. esquire (esquierre) and esquare (es-, equarre, also escuerre, equerre, mod.F. équerre):—pop. L. *exquadra (see quadra), whence also It. squadra, Pg. esquadra, Sp. escuadra. Also (in sense 17) f. square a. The early form squire is chiefly employed in senses 1 and 3.]
I.
1. a. An implement or tool for determining, measuring, or setting out right angles, or for testing the exactness of artificers' work, usually consisting of two pieces or arms set at right angles to each other, but sometimes with the arms or sides hinged or pivoted so as to measure any angle; esp. one used by carpenters or joiners. Freq. without article in phr. by square.
bevel-square, mitre-square, set-square, T-square or tee-square, trial-square or try-square: see these words.
αa1300Cursor M. 2231 Do we wel and make a toure Wit suire [v. rr. squire, squyre] and scantilon sa euen, Þat may reche heghur þan heuen. c1391Chaucer Astrol. i. §12 Next the forseide cercle of the A. b. c...is Marked the skale, in Maner of 2 Squyres. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 4906 Fyrst ye shal a squyre take, A Squyre off a carpenter; And ye shal vse thys maner. c1449Pecock Repr. ii. i. 135 This werk is to be mad by cumpas, and thilk werk..bi squyer and suche othere. 1474Caxton Chesse iii. ii. (1883) 86 The carpenters ben signefyed by the dolabre or squyer. 1553in Archaeol. (1796) XII. 341 John Keyme, smith, for 40 socketts, 8 sqwiers, withe other necessaries. 1599T. M[oufet] Silkwormes 35 Holding his file in right hand hansomly, In left his paire of compasses and squire. 1626Bacon Sylva §373 Take a Turreted Lamp of Tinne, made in the forme of a Squire. 1656W. Dugard tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. 155 They search out..the straightness of a line, with a squire.
fig.1582Stanyhurst æneis Ep. Ded. (Arb.) 5 Hauing no English writer beefore mee in this kind of poetrye with whose squire I should leauel my syllables. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. i. 58 But temperance..with golden squire Betwixt them both can measure out a meane. 1620Quarles Feast of Wormes (1638) 29 Fate..tels when dayes, and moneths, and termes expire, Meas'ring the lives of Mortals by her squire.
β1412York Fabric Rolls (Surtees) 432/1 Pro levells, Squares, et reules, xxd. a1562in Norf. Antiq. Misc. II. 5 A square and a compass. 1579Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 57 This inforceth Magistrates..with vnskilful Carpenters, to vse the Square and the compasse,..not to builde, but to ouerthrow. 1618Barnevelt's Apol. E 2 b, I beseech you, that the stone is to be fitted to the square, not the square to the stone. 1660Barrow Euclid i. prop. 11 The practice of this and the following is easily performed by the help of a square. a1763Shenstone Elegies x. 35 The poor mechanic wanders home, Collects the square, the level, and the line. 1781Cowper Convers. 789 A poet does not work by square or line, As smiths and joiners perfect a design. 1826Art Brewing (ed. 2) 196 When you have made the face of the roller as true as the square and the chisel can render it. 1872–4Jefferies Toilers of Field (1892) 173 A somewhat superior description is built in the shape of a carpenter's ‘square’.
†b. fig. In phr. by the square, with extreme accuracy or exactness; precisely, exactly. Obs.
1570T. Norton tr. Nowel's Catech. 51 b, He will not deale with vs after extremitie of lawe, nor call our doinges to exacte accompt, nor trie them as it were by the squire. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 475 Do not you know my Ladies foot by th' squier? 1633B. Jonson Tale Tub iv. ii, Why you can tell us by the squire, neighbour, Whence he is call'd a constable.
†c. As a heraldic bearing. Also per square, used to denote that a shield is divided by a line in the form of a carpenter's square. Obs.
1572J. Bossewell Armorie II. 117 He beareth Sable, a Squire direct from the chiefe, to the dexter parte of the shield de Argent. Ibid., Note also, that there may be vsed particion per Squere, although it be rare seene. 1610J. Guillim Her. 208 He beareth Argent, a Cheueron betweene three Carpenters Squires, Sable.
†d. A piece of ironwork, etc., having the form of a carpenter's square. Obs.
1530–1Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 354 Paid to the Smyth for a dogg of Iron for þe Roodloft... Paid for a Sqvyer for the same. 1551–2in Feuillerat Revels Edw. VI (1914) 72, ij longe plates and two squiers for a geblot.
2. fig. A canon, criterion, or standard; a rule or guiding principle; a pattern or example. (Very common c 1550–1650.)
a. Const. of (the thing serving as a standard, etc.). Now rare or Obs.
1549E. Allen Par. Leo Jude Rev. 9 As the Christen religion shalbe restored and reformed after the rule and square of holy scripture. 1579W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love B ij, Judge all thinges according to the ballance of equitye, and trying squaire or measure line of righteousness. 1604T. Wright Passions i. iii. 13 To governe the body..by the square of prudence, and rule of reason. 1654Whitlock Zootomia 24 Let thy Actions be justified by the Square of Religion and Justice. 1688Bunyan Jerusalem Sinner Saved (1886) 75 Upon the square, as I may call it, of the worthiness of the blood of Christ, grace acts. 1720Humourist 64 My Countrymen must excuse me, if I say, upon the Square of right Reason we make as ill a Figure as they do in Italy or Asia. 1809Malkin Gil Blas x. viii. (Rtldg.) 357 They would not deal with Antonia upon the square of modern law and gospel.
†b. Const. of (the thing regulated or judged).
1567Jewel Def. Apol. v. 556 Syluester Prierias saith, that the Romishe Church is the Squier, and Rule of Truthe. 1594West 2nd Pt. Symbol., Chancerie §23 Lawes appointed to be rules and squares of mens actions. 1617Collins Def. Bp. Ely ii. viii. 322 The square of our faith is the Scripture, not the Fathers. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iii. xxv. 233 Is merit everywhere else made the exact square of preferment? a1684Leighton Serm. Wks. (1868) 678 It is not the way to advance their Master's Kingdom, which end should be the Square of all their Contrivances.
†c. Without const. Obs.
c1550Rolland Crt. Venus iii. 536 For in sic luif is nother reull nor squair..Bot blindid lufe. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. i. 6 Whose duetye it is to settle the state of the world according to the right squyre. 1603Daniel Panegyric Congratulatory xxviii. Wks. (Grosart) I. 152 And all will seeme compos'd by that same square By which they see the best and greatest are. 1616Breton Good & Badde, Worthy Judge Wks. (Grosart) II. 7/1 His study is a square for the keeping of proportion betwixt command and obedience. 1640Carew Poems Wks. (1824) 84 A life so straight, as it should shame the square Left in the rules of Katherine or Clare.
†d. Const. of (the person, etc., setting the standard). Also with possessives. Obs.
1602–3Daniel Musophilus 101 Wks. (Grosart) I. 228 Ignorance will liue By others square, as by example lost. 1607J. Davies (Heref.) Summa Totalis Wks. (Grosart) I. 8/1 This Truth is not squar'd by Platoes squire. 1643W. Stampe Serm. 18 Apr. 18 The naturall square of the very Indians, is enough to condemne our want of obedience.
†3. Geom.
a. A plane figure having the form of a carpenter's square. Obs.
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. No. 21 When any two quadrates be set forth, howe to make a squire about the one quadrate, whiche shall be equall to the other quadrate. Ibid. Defin., A syseangle..whose vse commeth often in Geometry, and is called a squire, is made of two long squares ioyned togither, as this example sheweth.
†b. in a square, at right angles. Obs.
1571Digges Pantom. i. xviii. F j, E is the fourth staffe running sydewise orthogonally or in a squire from the third.
II.
†4.
a. Rectangular or square shape or form. Chiefly without article in prep. phrases, as in square or to square. Obs.
1382Wyclif Ezek. xlviii. 20 Alle the premisses of fyue and twenti thousandis, by fyue and twenti thousandis in sqware [L. in quadrum], shuln be departid in to primisses of the sayntuarie. a1513Fabyan Chron. Prol. 3 The Prentyse that hewyth the rowgth stone, And bryngeth it to square, with harde strokes and many. 1591Spenser Visions Bellay iii, Then did a sharped spyre of Diamond bright, Ten feete each way in square, appeare to mee. 1615T. Tomkis Albumazar ii. iii, I haue a parler Of a great square and height, as you desire it. 1663Gerbier Counsel 77 The sawing, and bringing of the Timber to a square.
†b. fig. In phrases with preps or verbs.
In some cases not clearly distinct from sense 2.
1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 91 Such be the present troubls and turmoyles, that nothing is left in iust square. 1597Breton Wit's Trenchmour Wks. (Grosart) II. 19/1 Her thoughts keepe the square of such discretion, that no idle humour dare enter the list of her conceit. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. iii. 7, I haue not kept my square, but that to come Shall be done by th' Rule. 1610Healey St. Aug. Citie of God ii. 80 Budæus..was neuer drawne from his true square with any profit or study to augment his estate. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 111 They have a Rule which will not hold square with his Position.
5.
†a. A side of a square, rectangle, or polygon; a face of a cube. Obs.
c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) vi. 21 It was made foure square, and ilka square contened sex myle or more. c1440Jacob's Well 91 Þis wose of wrethe is foure-square: o sqware of wrethe is a ȝens god. Ibid., An-oþer sqware of wrethe is aȝens þi-self. Ibid., Þe iij. sqware of wretthe is aȝens þi meyne. c1593Rites Durham (1903) 22 A foure squared stonn,..in euerye square a faire large Image. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 86 It is built foure square, each square containing forty foot. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 112 The Sepulchre..is of foure æquilaterall squares. 1656Heylin Surv. France 196 The figure of it [a tower] is six square, every square of it being nine paces in length. 1753Hanway Trav. iii. xxxiv. (1762) I. 157 This city is inclosed within a wall above a mile in each square.
b. The measurement of each side of a square object. rare—1.
1771Luckombe Hist. Printing 294 Four inches..is the square of the Hind-post.
6. a. A square or quadrilateral space, esp. one of several marked out on a board, paper, or other surface for playing certain games or for purposes of measurement, etc.; a square surface or face.
magic square, Nasik squares: see magic a. 3, Nasik. square of Pegasus: see Pegasus 1 c.
c1440Pallad. on Husb. ii. 110 An aker lond..therout of may be tolde Of squaris x feet wide,..ccc square of x, and twyes twelue. 1483Cath. Angl. 357/1 A Square,..quadra. 1551Sir J. Williams Accompte (Abbotsf. Cl.) 101 For cutting and slyppinge of two greate saphures into many squares. 1611Cotgr., Marelle, a square in a chesseboord. 1667Milton P.L. v. 393 Rais'd of grassie terf Thir Table was,.. And on her ample Square from side to side All Autumn pil'd. 1694Motteux Rabelais v. xxiv. 108 So that the Golden King was on a White Square, the Silver'd King on a Yellow Square. 1735Bertin Chess 55 The queen gives a check in the black queen's second square. 1832L. Hunt Hero & Leander ii. 104 The casement, at the dawn of light, Began to show a square of ghastly white. 1847Tennyson Princ. iv. ix, When unto dying eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square. 1898Eclectic Mag. LXVII. 653 All white squares..belong to the government, and can be homesteaded.
fig.1834M. Edgeworth Helen iv, Whatever I may have been..on the great squares of politics, I believe I never have been accused..of being a manœuvrer on the small domestic scale.
†b. fig. Affairs, events, matters, proceedings. Only in the phr. how (the) squares go. Now Obs.
Very common in the 17th c.
1607Middleton Fam. Love i. iii, How goes the squares. 1642Howell True Informer 2, I pray be pleased to make me partaker of some forraigne news, and how the squares goe betwixt France and Spaine. 1678J. Phillips tr. Tavernier's Trav. v. ii. 203 Sha-Abbas,..to know how squares went in his kingdom,..oft'n disguis'd himself, and went about the City..to discover whether Merchants us'd false weights. 1692R. L'Estrange Josephus, Antiq. xvi. xvii. (1733) 451 He first gave him an account of what had passed at Berytus; and then ask'd him how Squares went at Rome. 1828Carr Craven Gloss. II. 158 ‘How gang squares?’ a familiar form of salutation, equivalent to ‘how d' ye do’.
7. a. Geom. A plane rectilinear and rectangular figure with four equal sides; † a rectangle with unequal sides (cf. next).
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. ii. No. 36 If a right line be parted into ij. partes..the square that is made of that whole line, is equall to bothe the squares that are made of the same line, and the twoo partes of it seuerally. 1571Digges Pantom. i. B iij, If all the sides be equall, and al the angles right, than is that Paralelogramme called a square. 1660Barrow Euclid i. Def. 29 Of Quadrilateral, or four-sided figures, a Square is that whose sides are equal, and angles right. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Geometry, They observ'd, that God and Nature affect Perpendiculars, Parallels, Circles, Triangles, Squares, and harmonical Proportions. a1777Fawkes Voy. to Planets 32 An astrologer..decks the wall with triangles and squares. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 713 To obtain the perspective of a circle EFGH,..draw round it the square ABCD. Divide the square into small squares. 1854Poultry Chron. II. 151 In shape the body divested of head, tail, and legs should give a square. 1881R. Routledge Science ii. 36 To find..the length of the side of a square which has precisely the same area as the circle.
fig.1852Bailey Festus 493 Peace, piety, and innocence, and joy Made up the square of Being.
b. With qualifying term; esp. long square or oblong square, a rectangle. ? Obs.
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. ii. No. 39 Nowe by the theoreme, that longe square F.G.M.O, with the iuste square L.M.O.P, muste bee equall to the greate square E.K.Q.L. 1611Cotgr., Paralelogramme, a Paralelogramme, or long Square. 1723Chambers tr. Le Clerc's Archit. I. 105 Windows..are usually long Squares; their height being sometimes double their width, or very nearly so. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. II. 26/2 An equilateral and right⁓angled square. 1791T. Newte Tour Eng. & Scot. 61 This castle formed an oblong square. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 159 They are made in frames in the following manner:—An oblong square..is formed of four laths [etc.].
†c. geometrical square: see quadrat 1 b. Obs.
1571Digges Pantom. i. xxix. I j b, The other plate wherein youre square Geometricall and Theodelitus was described. Ibid. I ij, The double scale is compound of two Geometricall squares. 1728Chambers Cycl., Quadrat, call'd also Geometrical Square and Line of Shadows, is an additional Member on the Face of the common Gunter's and Sutton's Quadrants.
d. Logic. A square diagram used to illustrate the four kinds of logical opposition.
1864Bowen Logic vi. 168 That the various points in the doctrine of this sort of Immediate Inference might be more easily remembered, the old logicians contrived..the accompanying ingenious diagram, which may be called the Square of Opposition. 1891Pall Mall G. 5 May 2/2 It is a logical square, and its squareness is supposed to carry some metaphysical virtue.
8. a. Arith., Alg., and Geom. The product of a number multiplied by itself; a second power.
1557Recorde Whetst. G iij b, Twoo multiplications doe make a Cubike nomber. Likewaies .3. multiplications doe giue a square of squares. 1571Digges Pantom. i. xxx. K, Now square 2400 pase, so haue you 5760000, wherevnto yf you adioyne the square of HD the product will amount to 5763600. 1674S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 193 Then set down the Square of this Quotient figure. 1715tr. Gregory's Astron. Pref. (1726) I. p. xii, He understood..that the Gravity of the Planets towards the Sun..were reciprocally as the Squares of their Distances from the Sun. 1764J. Ferguson Lect. ii. 21 The squares of the times of their going round are as the cubes of their distances from the centers of the circles they describe. 1838De Morgan Ess. Probab. 62 Hence it follows, that when the number is large, the preceding fraction..is very nearly one half the square of that number. 1869Rankine Machine & Hand-tools App. 9 The square of the proof stress, divided by the modulus of elasticity, is called the Modulus of Resilience. 1885Watson & Burbury Electr. & Magn. I. 258 The law of the inverse square in electric action.
b. method (or principle) of least squares [tr. F. méthode des moindres quarrés (A.-M. Legendre Nouvelles Méthodes pour la Détermination des Orbites des Comètes (1806) 74)], the technique of estimating a quantity, fitting a graph to a set of experimental values, etc., so as to minimize the sum of the squares of the differences between the observed data and their estimated true values; so least square(s) attrib., denoting estimates, regression lines, etc., obtained by this method, the method itself, and the processes which it involves.
[1812Phil. Mag. XXXIX. 242 M. Legendre had not in any way mentioned the method which he has denominated that of small squares, (moindres carrées,). Ibid. 243 The principle of the small squares.] 1825Ibid. LXV. 10 The principle of least squares will hold good, whatever law of probability be adopted. 1830Poisson in Q. Jrnl. Sci., Lit. & Arts VI. 96 This embarrassment..remained to the period when M. Legendre proposed a direct and uniform method of forming the final equations, which was generally adopted under the name of Method of least squares of the errors, which was assigned to it by its author. 1872Thomson & Tait Elem. Nat. Philos. i. iii. 115 A and B are to be found by the method of least squares from values of l observed for different given values of t. 1916L. D. Weld Theory of Errors & Least Squares v. 87 If more [observations] are made, least-square reduction may be applied to their adjustment. 1939A. E. Treloar Elem. Statistical Reasoning iv. 59 ‘Least squares’ solutions, or the minimizing of squared deviations to reach representative values, may be made with facility, whereas the minimizing of absolute deviations becomes so involved that the problems can rarely be solved that way. 1950A. McF. Mood Introd. Theory Statistics xiii. 311 The primary reason that the method of least squares is commonly used for curve fitting is merely that it leads to a simple linear system of equations for determining the coefficients. 1957G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. vii. 469 C is determined from the distribution of temperatures by the method of least squares. 1970Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. July 127 The principle of the method is to rotate one matrix (usually a principal-components matrix) as close as possible to a hypothesized factor matrix, in a least-square solution. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VII. 967/1 Gauss developed a technique for calculating its orbital components with such accuracy that several astronomers late in 1801 and early in 1802 were able to locate Ceres again without difficulty. As part of his technique, Gauss used his method of least squares, developed about 1794.
9. Mil.
a. A body of troops drawn up in a square formation, either with solid ranks or leaving an open space in the centre (see b).
1591Garrard's Art Warre 1160 To defend and flanke the maine square. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iv. ii. 28 Our superfluous Lacquies, and our Pesants, Who in vnnecessarie action swarme About our Squares of Battaile. 1602Marston Ant. & Mel. iii. Wks. 1856 I. 33 Huge troups of barbed steeds, Maine squares of pikes, millions of harguebush. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. iii. xi. 40 He alone Dealt on Lieutenantry, and no practise had In the braue squares of Warre. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1851) II. 599/2 He drew up the legions in a close square. 1791Cowper Iliad xv. 751 In even square compact so firm they stood. 1815Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1838) XII. 529, I had the infantry for some time in squares. 1847Tennyson Princ. v. 236 When we saw the embattled squares, And squadrons of the Prince, trampling the flowers With clamour. 1896R. S. S. Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign vi, The square halted, and each man lay down to sleep just where he stood.
b. hollow square, solid square (see quots. 1702, 1802).
1702Milit. Dict. (1704) s.v., Hollow Square, a Body of Foot drawn up with an empty space in the middle for the Colours, Drums and Baggage, facing and cover'd by the Pikes every way, to oppose the Horse. 1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4817/5 He..form'd the Foot..into hollow Squares. 1802James Milit. Dict. s.v., Solid Square, is a body of foot, where both ranks and files are equal. 1845Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 334 It is..to be discussed in hollow squares, and refuted by battalions four deep. 1876Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. 398 The solid square, which faces outwards..to resist cavalry; and the hollow square, in which the men face inwards, for the purpose of hearing orders, &c. read.
c. Without article in phr. into square.
1859F. A. Griffiths Artill. Man. (1862) 27 Men are formed into square to resist attacks of cavalry. Ibid., A battalion may be formed into square two deep to protect baggage or treasure against infantry only.
10.
†a. A square piece of material covering the bosom; the breast-piece of a dress. Obs.
1579Hake Newes out of Powles iv. (1872) D iv b, She must haue Partlet, Square & Lace, with Chaine about hir neck. 1600Fairfax Tasso xii. lxiv, Betweene her brests the cruell weapon riues Her curious square, embost with swelling gold. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 212. 1614 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. I. 43 As for lace to be a band and cuffs, and square with long peaks, pleas yoor ladyship know that it is not the fashon to weare such now. c1710in J. Ashton Reign Q. Anne (1882) I. 173 A round Sable Tippet,..with a piece of black Silk in the Square of the neck.
b. An object of a square (or approximately square) form or shape; a square or rectangular piece, block, etc.
1601Holland Pliny II. 447 Likewise morimals..and those sores which be filthy..are commonly healed with the old squares of the Tunie fish. 1662J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 4 The Sepulchre is in a little Chappel built of white marble, upon a high square of free-stonework. 1698M. Lister Journ. Paris (1699) 124, I saw a Picture here of about 6 inches over, finely painted in Mosaic, the very little squares were scarce visible to the naked Eyes. 1756Phil. Trans. L. 111 Then they cut out the true peat,..in long pieces, vulgarly called long squares, about three inches and a half broad every way, and four feet long. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xliv, The floor inlaid with small squares of fine marble. 1815Scott Guy M. xx, He..bolted his food down his capacious throat in squares of three inches. 1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. vi. §1. 375 The distilled fat is..distributed in layers..upon squares of cocoa-nut matting. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 338/1 The moulds themselves correspond in shape to the familiar tapering form of the ‘squares’ of salt, as they are called in shops.
†c. A surveying instrument made in the form of a square. Obs. rare.
1600Surflet Countrie Farme 655 In this figure you see the Squire and the Staffe each of them by themselues. 1712J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 82 The Square, or whole Circle,..an Instrument much made use of in..Surveying of Land.
d. A rectangular pane of glass.
1687Miége Gt. Fr. Dict. ii, A Square of glass. 1714S. Sewall Diary 16 July (1882) III. 10 It..lifted up the Sash window, broke one of the squares. 1775W. Williamson Trials at York 13/1 There were two squares of the window broke. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 219 Thus directing all the water..down the centre of the squares. 1877–in Linc., Somerset, and Cornw. glossaries and texts.
e. A square piece of material used as a scarf or cravat.
1882Queen 7 Oct. 334/2 Lace Bows... Lace Sets... Indian Muslin and Lace Squares, from 1s. 11d. to 12s. 6d. 1926in C. W. Cunnington Eng. Women's Clothing in Present Cent. (1952) vi. 190 The latest scarf conceit is a square of chiffon caught round the neck. 1960C. Dale Spring of Love iv. 94 Miss Burroughs [wearing]..a silk square over her shoulders against the draught. 1966B. Kimenye Kalasanda Revisited 60 Removing the georgette square which had been tightly binding her head. 1979A. Scholefield Point of Honour 142 Yellow knotted silk square at the throat.
11. a. A square or rectangular area or piece of ground; spec. a garden plot of this shape.
1615W. Lawson Country Housew. Gard. (1626) 10 If within one large square the Gardner shall make one round Labyrinth or Maze. 1623Markham Country Housew. Gard. iii. i, This is the cause..that Gardners raise their squares. a1700Evelyn Diary 27 Feb. 1644, On one of these walkes, within a square of tall trees, is a basilisc of copper. 1706London & Wise Retir'd Gard. I. i. x, I now want to know how many Dwarfs I ought to have in the Squares of my Garden. 1746Francis tr. Horace, Art Poetry 47 One happier Artist of th' æmilian Square. 1791Washington Lett. Writ. 1892 XII. 90 It is of great importance..that the city should be laid out into squares and lots. 1800Wordsw. Hart-leap Well 103 It chanced that I saw standing in a dell Three aspens at three corners of a square. 1850Tennyson In Mem. cxv, Now burgeons every maze of quick About the flowering squares. 1867Morris Jason v. 38 But Jason and his fair folk..Came to a square shaded about by trees.
attrib.1719London & Wise Compl. Gard. 288 Sow for the last time, your Square Peas in the middle of July.
b. Cricket. A closer-cut area at the centre of a ground, any strip of which may be prepared as a wicket.
1899Lawns (Sutton & Sons, Reading) 32 The club purse must determine the extent of ground to be treated in the manner we recommend, but while the work is in progress it is worth while to strain the point to make the playing square sufficiently large, say, at the very least, forty yards in the line of the wickets, by thirty yards in width. 1924H. de Sélincourt Cricket Match v. 110 As they reached the square, five Raveley men emerged, running, from the Pavilion, and called loudly for the ball. 1950F. J. Reed Lawns & Playing Fields xvii. 174 On established cricket squares mowing should commence as early as possible, setting the machine high and gradually lowering the cut as the season advances. 1976J. Snow Cricket Rebel 22 We were not to meet up as a side until we got on to the square.
c. Mil. slang. A parade ground.
1915F. H. Lawrence in Home Lett. T. E. Lawrence (1954) 644 There were 10 officers on the square when I joined in September, and four of them are now dead, four wounded and one missing. 1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 268 Square,..an army term for the drill or parade ground. In general, the Barrack Square. 1962A. Wesker Chips with Everything i. iii. 17 This is the Square. We call it a square-bashing square. 1982‘W. Haggard’ Mischief-Makers ii. 21 He had failed to pass Sandhurst. He had failed to pass off the square and had been put back a term.
12. a. An open space or area (approximately quadrilateral and rectangular) in a town or city, enclosed by buildings or dwelling-houses, esp. of a superior or residential kind, freq. containing a garden or laid out with trees, etc.; more generally, any open space resembling this, esp. one formed at the meeting or intersection of streets; also, the group of houses surrounding an area of this kind.
1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. ii. 79 There are many squares in Ispahan, but of all, that which is called the Meidan..is the greatest and finest place in the World. a1700Evelyn Diary 18 Apr. 1680, Going early from his house in the square of St. James. 1716Gay Trivia i. 9, I..the silent Court, and opening Square explore. 1782F. Burney Cecilia x. vii, She told the coachman, therefore, to drive to the corner of the square. 1816Southey Poet's Pilgr. iv. liii, Methought that in a spacious Square Of some great town the goodly ornament, Three statues I beheld. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 358 We should greatly err if we were to suppose that any of the streets and squares then bore the same aspect as at present. 1886C. E. Pascoe Lond. of To-day xxxiv. (ed. 3) 303 There is little to engage the wayfarer's interest westward of the Circus if we except some of the squares..lying on the north side.
attrib.1883Besant All in Garden Fair ii. iii, To end as his uncle was ending, with a square house and a one-horse carriage! 1893Daily News 12 Jan. 3/1 Square-gardens innumerable will occur to every one—in Bloomsbury, in Mayfair, in Belgravia.
b. A rectangular building or block of buildings; U.S. a block of buildings bounded by streets.
a1700Evelyn Diary 23 May 1645, The house is a square of 4 pavilions. 1725in Foley Rec. Eng. Prov. S.J. VII. Introd. p. xl, From thence it [the fire] communicated itself to the great square, or new building of the College on both sides. 1867Latham Black & White 16 A square at Philadelphia means a solid block of houses, not an open space enclosed by buildings. 1891Cent. Dict. s.v., The house is four or five squares further up-town.
13. An area of a hundred square feet, forming the measure or standard by which the price of flooring, roofing, tiling, or similar work is reckoned.
1663Gerbier Counsel 63 Old Tiling at thirteen shillings foure pence a square. New Tiling at 1. pound 5 shillings a square. 1667Primatt City & C. Builder 59 Carpenters do for the most part deal by the square, which is ten foot every way, and an hundred in all. 1703R. Neve City & C. Purchaser 23, 4s. per Square for Sawing the Boards..and..3s. 6d. per Square for Framing the Carcass. c1738in E. B. Jupp Carpenters' Co. (1887) 567 To do the new plain tyleing att {pstlg}1. 6. 0 per square, and the Pan tyleing att 18s. per square. 1825J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 550 A square of plain tiling will require a bundle of laths. 1883Law Times Rep. XLIX. 139/1 The deceased had slated seven or eight houses,..and..had been paid..upon the terms that he was to have 4s. a square. 1894Times 31 May 10/5 The flooring..fetched 5s. ‘a square’.
14. Astrol. and Astr. Quartile aspect; quadrature.
1667Milton P.L. x. 659 Thir planetarie motions and aspects In Sextile, Square, and Trine, and Opposite. 1686Goad Celest. Bodies i. xv. 97 Other causes may help to irritate that Passion, which the {moonfq} in Square to the Sun inclineth to. 1690Leybourn Curs. Math. 449 Mars..is observed by Kepler, when in Square with the Sun, to be Dichotomous,..at other times, between its Square and Opposition to the Sun to be Gibbous. 1819J. Wilson Compl. Dict. Astrol. 379 Square, the quartile aspect, containing a quadrant or right angle. 1861R. J. Morrison Hand-bk. Astrol. I. i. iii. 8 When a sextile aspect or distance of sixty degrees falls in the latter, Ptolemy intimates that it has the effect of a square, or ninety degrees. And when a trine falls in signs of short ascension, he says that the effect is also that of a square aspect. 1929V. E. Robson Alan Leo's Dict. Astrol. 188 The Square is the most critical and conflicting of aspects. a1963L. MacNeice Astrol. (1964) viii. 258 Sextiles..are supposed to be ‘good’..aspects, while the square (90°) is considered ‘bad’. 1975I. M. Hickey Astrol. viii. 72 Squares represent the lessons we have failed to learn.
15. In various special or technical senses:
†a. (See quots.) Obs.—0
†b. Arch. A square moulding; an abacus. Obs.
c. The squared part at the top of an anchor-shank.
d. (Miscellaneous uses: see quots.)
e. A thin piece of wood or metal, in the shape of a right-angled triangle, used as a bell-crank or connected with a tracker of an organ.
f. U.S. A group of bracts surrounding the flower of the cotton-plant. Hence square-borer (an insect).
g. Bookbinding. Usu. in pl. The portion of the cover of a bound book which projects beyond the leaves. h. A given space on the page of a newspaper, etc., considered as a unit of measurement for advertisements. U.S. (now Hist.).
a.1688Holme Armoury iii. xviii. (Roxb.) 134/2 The seuerall parts of the Barrell of a Muskett. The Barrell. The squares. The mullets. Ibid. 135/1 A screwed barrell, is when the bore is of six or eight squares, or thrids, all throughout.
b.1703T. N. City & C. Purchaser 5 Annulet... 'Tis the same Member as the Sieur Mauclerc, from Vitruvius, calls a Fillet,..and Brown from Scamozzi a..Square, and Rabit.
c.1839Ure Dict. Arts 44 In fig. 7 A is the shank [of the anchor];..E, the square; F, the nut. 1852Burn Naval & Mil. Techn. Dict. ii. s.v., Square of an anchor, carré de la verge.
d.1841Hartshorne Salop. Ant. Gloss., Squares, broad hoops of iron which are used to hold coal in ‘the Baskets’, whilst being drawn up a pit. 1844Parnell Appl. Chem. II. 65 The furnaces for the melting-pots, and for the pots called the ‘squares’ or ‘cuvettes’,..are placed in a range along the middle of the room lengthways. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2294/2 Square (Horology), that portion of the arbor on which the winding-key is placed; a similar part on the arbor of the hands of a watch, whereby they are set. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 398/1 The ‘square’ (the strong iron plate which connects the two parts of the carriage at the headstock).
e.1881C. A. Edwards Organs 74 Backfalls are dispensed with, and squares inserted in their stead. 1884Encycl. Brit. XVII. 834/1 In square and trackerwork..the old squares were made of wood. They resemble in function the squares used for taking bell-wires round a corner.
f.1895in Funk's Stand. Dict. 1906E. W. Hilgard Soils 503 The writer found a ‘patch’ of cotton with luxuriant stalks.., but almost devoid of ‘squares’ or blooms. 1906Westm. Gaz. 19 Dec. 2/1 The devastation caused by..the cotton aphis, the web-worm, and the square-borer.
g.1835‘J. A. Arnett’ Bibliopegia 207 Squares.—That portion of the boards of a volume which projects over the edges. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 43/2 The same processes are followed with the sides and the ‘squares’ when any ornamentation is tooled upon them. 1901D. Cockerell Bookbinding ix. 131 If the book has been trimmed, or is to remain uncut, a little more must be allowed for the ‘squares’. 1946E. Diehl Bookbinding II. xi. 148 If the squares are too large when the boards have been laced on, it is a simple matter to cut them down.
h.1800Impartial Observer (Natchez, Mississippi) 5 May 1/1 Advertisements..which exceed a square will be inserted at the same proportionate price. 1877Harper's Mag. Dec. 111/1 These newspaper people set an extra⁓ordinary value on their squares, as they call them. 1943C. Crow Great Amer. Customer 122 The standard space measurement [for advertising] was the ‘square’, which meant a space equal in depth to the width of a column—approximately two column inches.
16. Slang uses.
a. One who is square (square a. 9 d); a person considered to hold conventional or old-fashioned views. orig. U.S. Jazz.
1944Sun (Baltimore) 27 Jan. 10/5 Square, in musician's jargon, anyone who is not cognizant of the beauties of true jazz. 1944D. Burley Orig. Handbk. Harlem Jive 70 Are you going to be a square all you days? 1947[see hip v.5]. 1952‘E. Box’ Death in Fifth Position (1954) i. 23 Though I might not be entirely a square I was.. hopelessly ignorant of all that..mattered. 1959H. Hobson Mission House Murder ii. 15 The odd fifty million citizens who don't dig them are dead-beats—squares. 1965G. Hackforth-Jones Storm in Harbour ix. 142 You and I are what the up and coming generation call squares. We live in the past and we don't like what we see of the present. 1968T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test xxvii. 386 We're in two different worlds. You're a hippie and I'm a square. 1974Howard Jrnl. XIV. 101 The ‘square’ are women who are basically pro-authority, in favour of law and order, and share the values of ‘respectable’ society. 1977J. D. Douglas in Douglas & Johnson Existential Sociol. i. 42 Marihuana has been widely used for decades by artists and other groups, probably also as a way of expressing feelings against the squares.
b. A cigarette containing tobacco, rather than marijuana. U.S. (chiefly Blacks').
1970H. E. Roberts Third Ear 13/1 Square, a cigarette. 1971Black Scholar Sept. 36/2 Why, why, he kept asking himself, as he lit a square.., why do I keep having that dream. 1974Black World Nov. 57 Light me up a square, baby.
17. Elliptical uses of the adj.: A square meal (orig. and chiefly U.S.); a square piano; a square dance; a square drink, etc.
1882O. Merdian Let. 20 Sept. in Frontier (1930) X. 252/1, I went in..and had some dinner..ate a square & talked awhile. 1883Daily News 19 Sept. 1/7 A number of superior Secondhand Instruments,..including Grand Squares for India. 1893Family Herald 131/1 ‘Which is the next [dance]?’ ‘A square, I think.’ 1896‘H. S. Merriman’ Flotsam xii. 136 The stoutest and most middle-aged civil servant, provided he was single, was accorded a ‘square’. 1899N. & Q. 7 Jan. 8/1 In several parts of Glamorgan ‘a square of beer’, measuring two-thirds of a pint, is also a favourite drink, so called, I have heard it said, because it is a ‘square drink’. 1927J. Barbican Confess. Rum-Runner xxiii. 260 We sure was hungry for the dough, for it was weeks since we had roped in our three squares a day. 1962‘E. McBain’ Like Love ii. 21 But he had had a clean bed to sleep in, and three squares a day, as the saying goes. 1979‘H. Howard’ Sealed Envelope x. 135 Mine was a lousy job. There must be a better way of making three squares a day.
III. †18. A quarrel, dispute, wrangle; discord, dissension, quarrelling. Obs. (Cf. 19 and square v. 8.)
1545St. Papers Hen. VIII, X. 721 We talked sumwhat vively, but without any square. 1579–80North Plutarch (1676) 66 Afterwards they fortuned to fall at jar one with the other,..yet this square bred no violent inconvenience between them. a1603T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (1618) 434 Thus through a perpetual square and iar, of the voice and of the hart, there can be no musique. 1627C. Mageoghegan tr. Ann. Clonmacnois 39 They did agree without any Square at all.
IV. In various phrases.
to break a square, no square, etc.: see break v. 46.
†19. at square, in a state of disagreement, discord, or dissension; at variance; esp. to be or to fall at (a) square, to quarrel, differ, or wrangle. Obs.
Freq. from c 1545 to c 1600.
(a)1545St. Papers Hen. VIII, X. 724 The Scottes, with whom they had amytie,..and never..but twyse wer at any square togithres. 1559Mirr. Mag., Malin vi, My yongest brother,..Whose hauty minde and mine were still at square. 1566Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewel ii. 47 M. Jewell is so at square with all Writers. a1602Forman Diary (Halliw.) 10 Oftentymes they too were also at square, insomuch that twise he had like to have killed hir.
(b)a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 140 Yet their children and cosyns..fell so far at square, that the house of Burgoyne was spoyled of the fairest flower of his garland. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 99 The Monkes of Cauntorbury now hauyng the whole election in their owne handes, fell also at a square among themselues. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. I. 40/2 She falling at square with hir husband, married Uellocatus. 1602Carew Cornwall (1764) 103 She and hers fell at square, which discord..brake forth into a blow. [1632J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena b 4, What? laid aside thy Compasse?..with the Circle art thou fallen at square?]
(c)1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Rom. 1 Leste either sectes or names of countreys put you now at square. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. II. 54 Diuerse in Normandie desired nothing more than to set the two brethren at square.
20. out of square, out of the true, proper, or normal state or condition; out of (right) order or rule:
a. In predicative use.
Very common from c 1540 to c 1630.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 72 Neither shall the sense bee out of square, if ye take ye greke vocable λόγον..for reason. 1556Olde Antichrist 25 b, How great (and how out of square) this errour of y⊇ world is. 1612Two Noble K. iv. iii. 109 This may..reduce what's now out of square in her, into their former law, and regiment. 1621Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ 224 There are in Porphyrie two sorts of men irregular and out of square in the seruice of their gods. 1661J. Stephens Procurations 129 That which..in him..seemeth absonum, untunable and out of square, and friendly compasse. 1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. viii. (1872) 253 Something must be wrong in the inner man of the world, since its outer man is so terribly out of square!
b. With various verbs. In later use passing into the sense ‘in or into disorder, irregularity, or confusion’.
1555Eden Decades 346 Wherin he speaketh not greatly owt of square. 1596Spenser F.Q. v. Introd. i, Me seemes the world is runne quite out of square. 1622Peacham Compl. Gent. v. (1906) 39 The least disorder or ranknesse of any one flower, putteth a beautifull bed or well contrived knot out of square. 1650Howell Giraffi's Rev. Naples i. 50 Had not a secret Treaty..against Masaniello, and his followers, bin discovered, which put all things again out of square. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. i. vii, This shrieking Confusion of a Soldiery, which we saw long since fallen all suicidally out of square, in suicidal collision. 1864― Fredk. Gt. IV. 74 All things..much fallen out of square.
c. In literal sense.
1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 377 There was nothing in him that was out of square, but every joynte and limme, both in measure and in place,..passing hansome. 1603Fowldes Homer's Battle Frogs & Mice (1634) D 6 b, Exceeding were their [crabs'] shoulders out of square.
21. square one: the beginning, the starting-point. Freq. as back to (also in, on) square one.
Often said to derive from the notional division of an association football pitch into eight numbered sections for the purposes of early radio commentaries (see Radio Times, 1927, 28 Jan.). This suggestion cannot be upheld with any certainty, and the phrase may simply come from a board-game such as Snakes and Ladders.
1960Times 21 May 9/2 As far as building up a basis for profitable negotiations is concerned the two sides are back in square one. 1965Listener 24 June 930/2 Let us drop the logical knot that twin studies have tied us in and go back for a moment to square one. 1965Guardian 13 Oct. 2/7 The city's medical officer..said they were still in ‘square one’, and would stay there till they got some real facts. 1966J. I. M. Stewart Aylwins x. 126 That he had seized a chance to break off our interview at that point seemed to argue a refusal to abide by this judgement of the matter. We were back, so to speak, in Square One. 1970G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 279 A couple of wrong answers and Sneed knew he'd be right back on square one. 1973G. Talbot Ten Seconds from Now (1974) viii. 111 After each of those successful essays it was ‘back to Square One’. 1977‘M. Innes’ Honeybath's Haven x. 98 Honeybath broke off in these bold proposals, suddenly aware that Edwin was weeping. It was like being back on square one. 1980D. Bogarde Gentle Occupation xii. 332 ‘Black is black, Moluccans.’..‘Are coloured people. They are dark,’ said Emmie with force. ‘Well, don't let's have any blasted children’... ‘But I do. I want.’..‘Oh for God's sake. We're back to square one again.’
V.
22. attrib. and Comb., as square-bashing vbl. n. and ppl. a. Mil. slang [bashing vbl. n. 3], drilling; hence square-basher; square-free a. Math. [tr. G. quadratfrei], (of an integer) equal to the product of a set of different primes; not divisible by a perfect square; square-pusher slang, (a) a respectable girl; (b) a boyfriend; hence square-pushing, the act or practice of walking out with a girl (popularly associated with accompanying nursemaids, etc., about town squares); love-making; also as pres. pple.
1959Spectator 21 Aug. 212/2 The transition away from the era of the square-basher and the char-and-wadder is painfully slow.
1943Square-bashing [see bashing vbl. n. 3]. 1946C. Fry Phoenix too Frequent 28 There, do you see her, you acorn-chewing infantryman? You've made her cry, you square-bashing barbarian. 1962[see sense 11 c above]. 1975‘G. Black’ Big Wind for Summer ii. 20 Attached to a Malay regiment, supervising weapon training and square bashing.
1960Niven & Zuckerman Introd. Theory Numbers xi. 226 The set of square-free integers has natural density 6/π2. 1971G. Higman in Powell & Higman Finite Simple Groups vi. 209 All elements have square-free order.
1890Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang II. 158/1 A square pusher is a girl of good reputation. 1922Joyce Ulysses 425, I seen you up Faithful place with your squarepusher, the greaser off the railway, in his cometobed hat.
1918W. J. Locke Rough Road x. 116 ‘Go ‘square-pushing’?’ said Doggie contemptuously, using the soldiers' slang for walking about with a young woman. 1922Joyce Ulysses 161 Squarepushing up against a backdoor. Maul her a bit. 1928F. E. Baily Golden Vanity xii. 178 Left me cold in a strange place to go square-pushing with some forward young woman. 1930J. B. Priestley Good Companions i. iv. 134 'E wouldn't bother, though, too busy square⁓pushing, taking the girls out, see.
▪ II. square, a.|skwɛə(r)|
Also 4–7 squar, 5 sqware, squyer, 6 squear, Sc. squair, squayr; 4–6 sware (4 suare, 6 suar).
[ad. OF. esquarré (escarré), pa. pple. of esquarrer square v., assimilated to this and to square n.]
I.
1. a. Having a rectilinear and rectangular form of equal length and breadth; contained by four equal sides at right angles to each other; quadrate.
In early use freq. four-square a. Cf. also three-, six-, eight-square n.
13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 837 Lesande þe boke with leuezsware. Ibid. B. 1386 Þe place..Was longe & ful large & euer ilych sware. c1391Chaucer Astrol. i. §13 Thanne hastow a brod Rewle, þat hath on either ende a Square plate perced with a certein holes. c1400Rom. Rose 4158 Aboute it was founded square, An hundred fademe on every side; It was alle liche longe and wide. c1440Palladius on Husb. ii. 107 A tabul square an aker lond to holde, Feet scoris nyne in lengthe, as fele in wide. 1509Hawes Past. Pleas. xxxv. 179 On the thirde head, in a banner square, All of reade was wrytten Discomfort. 1557in Feuillerat Revels Q. Mary (1914) 236 A square pece of waynscott. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xi. (Arb.) 113 It will grow into the figure Trapezion, which is some portion longer then square. 1611Bible 1 Kings vii. 5 And all the doores and postes were square, with the windowes. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 1048 To behold..th' Empyreal Heav'n, extended wide In circuit, undetermind square or round. 1715tr. Gregory's Astron. (1726) I. 442 Because this given Rectangle..wants of a square Figure. 1784Cowper Task i. 21 A massy slab, in fashion square or round. 1835J. Duncan Beetles (Nat. Lib.) 128 The elytra..approach more to a square shape than is usual among the carabideous tribes. 1859Handbk. Turning 127 Square patterns require great care in working them. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. 489 An apparatus for trimming paper and prints..and enabling the user to be sure that they will be true and square.
transf.1648Hexham ii, Teerlingh-wijse, after a Square manner. 1869Rankine Machine & Hand-tools Pl. P 8 The ordinary methods of hand or square centering now in general use. 1892Daily News 28 July 6/7 The artillery moved up by square movements instead of in line.
b. square inch, square foot, square yard, etc., a rectangular space measuring an inch, foot, etc., either way. square mile: also spec. a familiar term for the (heart of the) City of London.
In quot. 1667 ‘square Inches’ are = ‘cubic inches’ (cf. 3 b), and in quot. 1715 the sense is ‘of 36 square inches’.
1625N. Carpenter Geogr. Del. i. viii. (1635) 200 The product will shew the number of square miles in the face of the Terrestriall Globe. 1667Primatt City & C. Builder 36 If you would let it by the square Foot,..it is worth twelve pence a Foot per ann. Ibid. 165 A Foot solid measure hath seventeen hundred twenty eight square Inches. 1691T. H[ale] Acc. New Invent. 59 To do the Work per Yard square. 1715Desaguliers Fires Impr. 161 There are but few Cavities in this Construction, and those but 36 Inches square. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 302 A weight of fifteen pounds upon every square inch. 1837J. T. Smith tr. Vicat's Mortars 92 An absolute resistance of 5k.43 per centimetre square. 1846Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 437 The result, in square chains and links, is converted into acres by a simple division by ten. 1868G. Duff Pol. Surv. 48 His territories in Asia cover 668,580 English square miles. 1966L. Southworth Felon in Disguise i. 13 Being a non-residential area, murders seldom occur in the square mile. 1971Guardian 3 Mar. 18/4 Prince Charles was made a Freeman of the City of London yesterday... It was the kind of traditional occasion that the square mile does so well. 1975Times 1 Mar. 12/2 The City Corporation hopes to have redeveloped 90 per cent of the square mile by 1980.
c. square measure, a unit of measurement consisting of a square space; a system of measures based on such units.
1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Measure, English Square or Superficial Measures are raised from the Yard of 36 Inches, multiplied into itself. 1854Orr's Circle Sci., Math. 19 Measures of Surface, or Square Measure.
2. a. square number, the product of a number multiplied by itself.
1557Recorde Whetst. C iij b, Square nombers are those, whiche maie be diuided by some one number, and haue the same number for the quotiente. 1570Billingsley Euclid vii. def. 19. 187 It is called a square number, because..it representeth the figure of a square in Geometry. 1621T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 41 Plato iudged the yeare eightie one, which is compounded of nine times nine, to be the Climactericall yeare,..which hee calleth the square number. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 215 Though it containeth both numbers..7. and 9. yet neither of them square or quadrate. 1674S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 193 Which Square Number set thereunder, and substract therefrom. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 181 ⁋5, I..considered even the square and cubick numbers through the lottery. 1846De Morgan Arith. vii. §161 note, By square number I mean a number which has a square root. Thus 25 is a square number, but 26 is not.
b. square root, the number or quantity constituting such a base of a given number or quantity as to produce this when multiplied by itself.
1557Recorde Whetst. G iv, The roote of a square nombere, is called a Square roote. 1571Digges Pantom. i. xxxiii. K ij b, The roote square of the remaynder ye must compare wyth the distaunce of the fyrste shyppe. 1633Massinger Guardian i. i, They would have me..let him know No more than how to cipher well, or do His tricks by the square root. 1674S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 193 The Square Root of a Number is extracted commonly thus. 1715tr. Gregory's Astron. (1726) I. 53 The Celerities of the Bodies are reciprocally as the Square Roots of the Radii. 1812–6Playfair Nat. Phil. (1819) I. 195 The area of the orifice multiplied into the square-root of the depth. 1842Penny Cycl. XXII. 394/1 The rule for the extraction of the square root is a tentative inverse process very much resembling division.
c. square party, a party of four persons.
In the first quot. after F. partie carrée, a party of two men and two women.
1851Wolff Pict. Spanish Life vi. 176 Remaining a ‘square party’,..we all four embarked in the little boat. 1893G. Allen Scallywag I. vi. 79 The square party of pedestrians turned away along the sea front.
3. a. Having an equilateral rectangular section.
a1300Cursor M. 1664 A wessel..sal be wroght o suare tre. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 218 Many a barre Of iren greet and squar as eny sparre. c1407Lydg Reson & Sens. 5415 And arwes eke..With which, wher they be square or rounde, He kan hurte. 1459Paston Lett. I. 490 Item, ij. grete square spittys. 1508Dunbar Gold. Targe 111 Wyth bow in hand..And dredefull arowis grundyn scharp and square. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §9 To plow a square forowe, the bredthe and the depenes all one. 1677[see square-bore in 15]. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Stairs, Square winding Stairs are such as wind round a square Newel, either Solid or open. 1796Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) III. 531 Stems square, hairy. 1832Brewster Nat. Magic viii. 188 One being a square rod, another a bent cylindrical one. 1846Holtzapffel Turning II. 824 Square files, are used for small apertures, and those works to which the ordinary flat files are from their greater size less applicable. 1900Jrnl. Sch. Geog. (U.S.) Jan. 11 A ‘square tube’ or long narrow box with an inside measurement of one inch square.
fig.1862M. E. Braddon Lady Audley xxv, The square men in the round holes are pushed into them by their wives. c1870Tennyson in Athenæum 5 Nov. (1892) 631/1, I should but be..the square man in the round hole.
b. Having a form more or less approximating to a cube; rectangular and of three dimensions.
c1420Liber Cocorum (1862) 38 Cut [the mallard] in peses, as I þe kenne; Square as dises þou shalt hit make. 1600Sir John Oldcastle iv. i, Giue vs square dice, weele keepe this courte of guard For al good fellowes. 1621in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1906) I. 291 The squar basketts are not made all of one biggnesse. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 11 These occidental Indian square-heads. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 38/1 Whether square Stone, or uneven Scantlings. 1760R. Brown Compl. Farmer ii. 42 Steel⁓marle, which..is of it self apt to break into square cubical bits. 1832Brewster Nat. Magic xi. 269 A large square chest or box, three feet and a half long, two feet deep, and two and a half high. 1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., Square Tank Coil, a condensing coil of rectangular shape.
4. Of limbs, the body, etc.: Approximating to a square section or outline; stoutly and strongly built; solid, sturdy.
1375Barbour Bruce iii. 581 Newys that stalwart war & squar, That wont to spayn gret speris war. c1400Destr. Troy 3967 A hard brest hade þe buerne, & his back sware. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 200 Here greet shulderys, square and brood. 1513Douglas æneid v. vii. 107 His lymmis squair, Baith big bonis and brawnis, [he] maid all bair. a1548Hall Chron., Rich. III, 3 b, To him he ioyned one John Dighton,..a bygge, broade, square, & strong knaue. 1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. II. 44 Quhen æneas Syluius walde expreme the coniunctioun of his memberis, with the Maiestie of his persoune, he calis him squair. 1625Hart Anat. Ur. ii. viii. 103 Yet was he of a reasonable square and corpulent body. 1709London Gaz. No. 4536/4 He is a Square well-set Man. 1720Ibid. No. 5898/9 A..well built, and square Mare. 1802M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. x. 76 A square, thick, hard⁓working man. 1854Poultry Chron. I. 239 What a glorious old hen she was! Large, wide, short-legged, square and compact.
5. Of (a stated) length on each of the four sides forming a square.
Regularly placed after the words giving the measurement. The usage in quot. 1448 is obsolete.
c1400Mandeville (1839) v. 41 That Tour conteyned gret Contree in circuyt: For the Tour allone conteyned 10 Myle sqware. 1448in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) II. 8 The Someres..shall be one side xij inch squar and on the other part xiiij inch squar; and all the Gistes shall be on the one part squar vi inches and on the other part viij inches. 1449in Cal. Proc. Chanc. Q. Eliz. (1830) II. Pref. 55 Þe gurdyng someres of þe same flore shull be xj inchis square. a1550Droichis Part of Play 44 in Dunbar's Poems (S.T.S.) 315 His teith wes ten myle squair. 1594R. Ashley tr. Loys le Roy 41 b, In the midst there was an other place made of Carpenters worke,..and was large a hundred foote square, which is fower hundred foote round. 1619in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1906) I. 163 Those peeces which content 30 ells square fall out but 20 covados square. 1659J. Leak Waterwks. 18 A straight Axeltree of wood, a foot square, and 60-foot high. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Diamond, A Hole is made in a Wall, a foot-square. 1790W. Wrighte Grotesque Archit. 4 An hermit's cell..eight feet square in the inside. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 427 This block, which may be six inches square, need not rise more than an inch above the surface. 1854Poultry Chron. II. 142 The whole were reared in a back-yard not ten feet square. 1900[see 3].
6.
†a. Of an angle: Right. Obs.
1551Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. Def., A blunt or brode corner, is greater then is a square angle, and his lines do parte more in sonder then in a right angle.
b. At right angles; rectangular in position or direction; perpendicular (to something).
1571Digges Pantom. i. i. C, Thus drawe your plumbe or squire line FCG. Ibid. xxii. G iij, Drawe foure lines perpendiculare or squire the one to the other. 1656H. Phillips Purch. Patt. (1676) B viii b, In the square meeting of the Table. 1715Desaguliers Fires Impr. 86 Whose sides are all square to one another. Ibid., Draw HP square or perpendicular to GHA. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Square, a term peculiarly appropriated to the yards and their sails, implying that they hang at right angles with the mast or keel. 1797J. Curr Coal Viewer 11 In the main roads underground..square turns are not necessary. 1833M. Scott Tom Cringle xv. (1842) 379 A long low vessel,..with immensely square yards. 1833Regul. & Instr. Cavalry i. 49 Bodies to be quite square to the front. 1857Livingstone Trav. ii. 40 The Bakwains have a curious inability to make or put things square. 1868Airey Pop. Astron. i. 15 note, When the expression perpendicular to the surface of the glass is used, it means what a workman would probably call square to the surface of the glass.
†c. fig. Diverging or deviating from something.
1549L. Coxe Erasm. Par. Titus 28 Teaching shamefull thinges and far square from the veritie of the gospell.
d. Assoc. Football, etc. Of a group of players: positioned in a line at right angles to the direction of play (spec. as a defensive weakness).
1972G. Green Great Moments in sport: Soccer x. 97 Often, too, Mullen and Hancocks would find each other with long, cross-field passes which travelled from one touchline to the other during the course of an attack, with the result that opposing defences were often caught square offering vital openings to the forwards in the middle. 1977Times 28 Feb. 8/3 They were goals Middlesbrough always looked like taking against Arsenal's soft, square defence.
7. a. Even, straight, level. Also const. with.
1814D. H. O'Brien Captivity & Escape 7 On our arrival on board, the water was nearly square with the combings of the lower deck. 1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 201 Brass surfaces are..rubbed square with blue stone.
b. fig. On equal terms; with all accounts settled. Freq. const. with.
1859Slang Dict. 100 ‘To be square with a man,’ to be revenged. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset I. xxxvii. 326 He's only going to give me my little bit of money..and then he and I will be all square. 1883Contemp. Rev. Sept. 358 Acred squires, who lay their heads..on their pillows with self-approval that they are square with the world. 1892‘R. Boldrewood’ Nevermore III. 68 I've got square with you so far, and..I'll be more than even with you yet.
c. Golf. Having equal scores. Also in other sports.
1887in Jamieson's Sc. Dict. Suppl. 227/1. 1898 Daily News 22 Oct. 9/4 They were all square at the 18th, and no fewer than five extra holes had to be played before the Huddersfield man could claim a victory. 1955Times 14 May 3/4 (heading) All square in Davis Cup.
8. Mus. Of rhythm: simple, straightforward.
1958Times 27 Oct. 12/3 Attempts have been made..in recent years to get away from the square style of playing that arose out of the hymns and other purely vocal music. 1967A. L. Lloyd Folk Song in England iv. 170 The earlier melodies are more vigorous, squarer, franker in cast. 1976Early Music July 270 The opening sinfonia for strings and trombones is remarkably like several opera overtures of the time, with square rhythms [etc.].
II.
9. Of actions: Just or equitable; fair, honest, honourable, straightforward: a. In the phrases square play or square dealing, the square thing. square deal: see deal n.2 4 c.
(a)1591Greene Conny Catch. (1859) 7 For feare of trouble I was fain to try my good hap at square play. 1604W. Terilo Fr. Bacon's Proph. 214 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 276 And faire square plaie with yea and naie, Who lost the game would quickly paie. 1677Wycherley Pl. Dealer i. i, Why, don't you know..that telling truth is a quality as prejudicial to a man that wou'd thrive in the World, as square Play to a Cheat? 1708Brit. Apollo Supern. Paper No. 4. 1/2 Venturing my Money in any sort of Traffick, is much the same, as at Square Play.
(b)1633Gerard Descr. Somerset (1900) 115 Theis come as neere unto them as possibly with square dealing they can. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. i. 38 Would there then be kept that square-dealing in such a monstrous den of Thieves? 1884Harper's Mag. June 56/2 Reputation for integrity and square dealing.
(c)c1860Mrs. Spofford in Casquet of Literature IV. 25/1 He had come to question..whether it was just the square thing to..shut her up all by herself. 1890Cent. Mag. Feb. 527/1 You know I've tried to do the square thing by you.
b. In general use. (Cf. fair and square a.)
1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. ii. 190 She's a most triumphant Lady, if report be square to her. 1607― Timon v. iv. 36 For those that were, it is not square to take On those that are, Reuenge. 1679Harby Key Script. ii. 27 Much more must his Antitype..be far from giving or receiving any right Counsel, and from all practice of Square Right. 1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v. 1885American IX. 278 A desire to do something which, as they think, will be square all around. 1892‘R. Boldrewood’ Nevermore xi, I may have doubted whether everything was quite square about him [a horse]; but I never thought for a moment that he was stolen.
10. Of persons:
†a. Not readily moved or shaken in purpose, etc.; solid, steady, reliable. Obs.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie ii. xi[i]. (Arb.) 113 [Aristotle] termeth a constant minded man..a square man. 1612T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 7 This doctrine sheweth what a square and furnished man he had need be, who must stand vnder such a burden as this is. 1635in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. III. 283 To make sure to keepe my self close and squaire in all to his Mati⊇s service. 1710S. Sewall Diary 3 Apr., I did not think him so square and stable a man.
†b. Solid or steady (at eating or drinking). Obs.
1611Cotgr., Vn ferial beuveur, a square drinker, a faithfull drunkard; one that will take his liquor soundly. a1616Beaum. & Fl. Bonduca ii. iii, By ― square eaters, More meat I say:..how terribly They charge upon their victuals.
c. Honest or straightforward in dealing with others; honourable, upright.
1646Quarles Judgem. & Mercy Wks. (Grosart) I. 93/2 Mistaking a lying or cousening knave for a square or honest man. 1667Temple Let. Ld. Arlington Wks. 1720 II. 49, I found him as plain, as direct, and square in the course of this Business, as any Man could be. a1716Bp. O. Blackall Wks. (1723) I. 165 When he sees that those Christians with whom he trades, are not..so square and honest in their Dealings. 1811Lexicon-Balatronicum, Square, honest, not roguish. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. i. 2 I've trusted him, since then, with everything I have—money, house, horses,—..and I always found him true and square in everything. 1883F. M. Crawford Dr. Claudius ix, He amuses me, and he is very square on settling days.
d. Designating one who is out of touch with the ideas and conventions of a particular popular contemporary movement (orig. Jazz); conventional, old-fashioned. Formerly opp. hep a. Also of things. slang (orig. U.S.).
1946B. Treadwell Big Bk. Swing 125/2 Square, not versed in Swing, puritanical. 1950J. Vedey Band Leaders 175 Consummate performer that Ellington is, he put these numbers over to the delight of all types of audience, young and old, sophisticated and ‘square’. 1953W. Burroughs Junkie (1972) x. 110 The other patients were a pretty square and sorry lot. 1959N. Mailer Advts. for Myself (1961) 264 They wish this newspaper to be more conservative, more Square—I wish it to be more Hip. 1959Punch 2 Sept. 103/1, I..told her that the bang-opening was old-hat and a completely square method of writing these days. 1965F. Raphael Darling i. 7 You know books. Those things with pages very square people still occasionally read. 1971B. Malamud Tenants 80, I didn't expect it to be that good, not from the square dude you are. 1977P. G. Winslow Witch Hill Murder ii. xvii. 219 He wants to be in with the law. Square at heart.
11.
†a. Precise, prim, solemn. Obs.
c1590Sir T. More (Malone Soc.) 1425 Oh what formalitie, what square obseruance: liues in a little roome. 1599B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. ii. iii, A serious, solemne, and supercilious face, full of formall and square gravitie. 1601― Poetaster iv. vi, And all their square pretext of grauitie [is] A meere vaine glorie.
†b. Solidly or firmly constituted; free from flaw or defect. Obs.
1628Strafford in Browning Life (1891) 293 We must apply a square courage to our proceedings, not fall away as water spilt upon the ground. 1672Owen Disc. Evang. Love v, Every undue presumption hath one or other lameness accompanying it: it is truth alone which is square and steady.
c. Precise, exact; † certain.
1632Lithgow Trav. v. 199 My conduct [= guide] still deceaued me, made it square Another Carauan, O! would come there. Ibid. ix. 415 Fit to gouerne others, and to direct him selfe with the square rules of wisdome and iudgement. a1684Leighton Wks. (1868) 675 Framing them to an external and square carriage whereby the world..is much advantaged. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1871) II. 65 His ideas being square, solid and tangible, and therefore readily grasped and retained. 1884J. Parker Apost. Life II. 153 This is a square Gospel; it will have all things at right angles.
d. Straight, direct.
1804M. Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) II. 162 It was..a square fight between the all-important head man of the party and another who ranks as his second. 1873Hale In His Name vi. 57 [He] could not answer the square question put to him. 1896Daily News 11 April 3/5 It may be..foolish of the Transvaal to refuse the opportunity for a square talk, but it is strictly within its rights.
e. Right; in good order; on a proper footing. to call (it) square, to regard as balanced or settled.
1825H. Wilson Mem. (ed. 2) III. 360 As though I had been the Duchess's chosen daughter-in-law, for whom he was making all square. 1836Marryat Midsh. Easy xviii, If she is unhappy for three months, she will be overjoyed for three more when she hears that I am alive, so it will be all square at the end of the six. 1853Dickens Bleak Ho. xx, I had confident expectations that things would come round and be all square. 1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 163 Although he was willing to call it square, in reality he ought to make a claim.
f. Of meals: Full, solid, substantial. Of a drink: Copious; of full measure.
Orig. U.S.; common from about 1880.
1868All Year Round 19 Sept. 354/2 Roadside hotel⁓keepers..calling the miners' attention to their ‘square meals’: by which is meant full meals. 1876Daily News 24 Oct. 1/3 This pot simmers from early morn till noon, when the one ‘square meal’ of the day is eaten. 1884E. F. Knight Cruise Falcon xi. 186 Mr. Wynn..had prepared a good square supper for the travellers. 1899[see square n. 17].
III. ellipt.
12. on or upon the square.
a. With a square front; face to face; directly, openly. Now rare.
c1611Chapman Iliad xiii. 138 But when he fell into the strengths the Grecians did maintain, And that they fought upon the square [Gr. ἀντίοι], he stood as fetter'd then. 1677Wycherley Pl. Dealer iv. i, Prithee bid 'em come up,..captain, for now I can talk with her upon the square. 1691Dryden K. Arthur v. i, How's this, a sally? Beyond my hopes, to meet them on the square. 1737Whiston Josephus, Hist. vi. vii. §2 Nor were [they] strong enough to fight with the Romans any longer upon the square. 1821Lamb Elia i. Old & New Schoolm., He is awkward, and out of place, in the society of his equals... He cannot meet you on the square.
b. In a fair, honest, or straightforward manner; without artifice, deceit, fraud, or trickery.
Very common from c 1670, freq. with reference to playing or gaming.
(a)1667–8Dk. Newcastle & Dryden Sir Martin Marall i. i, Scarce one woman in an hundred will play with you upon the square. 1680Cotton Compl. Gamester (ed. 2) 4 These Rooks can do little harm in the day time at an Ordinary, being forc'd to play upon the Square. 1718Freethinker No. 135, In an Age, wherein it is almost become the Glory of States to circumvent each other, who does not see the Necessity of playing upon the Square? 1748Smollett Rod. Rand. ix, He had played on the square with them. 1822Scott Nigel xiii, While Lord Glenvarloch chose to play, men played with him regularly, or, according to the phrase, upon the square. 1844Thackeray Barry Lyndon xiii, No man could play with me through Europe, on the square.
(b)1667Dryden Maid. Q. iv. i, 'Gad, I love upon the square, I can endure no tricks to be used to me. 1689T. R. View Govt. Europe 62 They no longer treated on the square with their people. 1701[De Foe] Villany of Stock-Jobbers (ed. 2) 15 Then we shall Trade upon the square; Honesty and Industry will be the method of Thriving. 1736G. Lillo Fatal Curiosity i. i, And he, who deals with mankind on the square,..undoes himself. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 75 §11 The greater part had indeed always professed to court, as it is termed, upon the square. 1809Malkin Gil Blas viii. xii. ⁋3, I shall act upon the square with you. 1851Mayhew Lond. Lab. I. 378 Some of the fraternity..do not always deal ‘upon the square’. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xiii. (1878) 255, I could not help doubting if everything was done on the square, as they say.
†c. Upon terms of equality or friendship with another or others; also, even or ‘quits’ with another. Obs.
1692Washington tr. Milton's Def. People x. M.'s Wks. 1851 VIII. 227 They chose rather to be lorded over once more by a Tyrant..than endure their Brethren and Friends to be upon the square with them. 1693Dryden Juvenal iii. 179 We live not on the Square with such as these: Such are our Betters who can better please. 1707Reflex. upon Ridicule 99 No body ventures to say in general, that he's upon the Square with Men of a great Merit. 1709Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. (1736) III. 30 They are now upon the Square with one another.
d. In predicative use without const.: Free from duplicity or unfairness; honest, straightforward, upright. Now slang.
1682Penn in Dixon Life xxiii. (1872) 207 Keep upon the square, for God sees you. 1709Steele Tatler No. 39 ⁋20 They us'd Seconds, who were to see that all was upon the Square. 1731Medley Kolben's Cape G. Hope 262 All of them trade..in the most upright and friendly manner..with the Europeans, whenever the latter are upon the square. 1839in ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulg. Tongue (1857) 34 On the square, honest, square. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset I. xxxvii. 325 I'm not going to throw you over. I've always been on the square with you. 1892E. Reeves Homeward Bound 53 An unfortunate stowaway, who..was ‘peached’ on by a steerage passenger who he thought was ‘on the square’.
e. to set on or upon the square, to set or put right, or in proper order. rare.
1846Trench Mirac. 255 Awaiting the great day when all things shall be set on the square. 1860― Serm. Westm. Abbey xxiii. 262 Leaving much..to be redressed and adjusted and balanced, and finally set upon the square, on that great coming day.
f. In literal sense: At right angles; in a square or solid form.
1883Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Rlwy. 44 This Bridge is to be built under the Railway, on the square. 1904Daily Chron. 1 Sept. 4/5 The Japanese soldier is never weedy. He is built on the square.
g. Having membership of the Freemasons; in accordance with the Masonic code.
1888Kipling Man who would be King in Phantom 'Rickshaw 73, I am hoping you will give him the message on the Square. 1927― Limits & Renewals (1932) 172, I told him I was something else besides a G.P...From then on he told the tale on the Square. 1974Times Educ. Suppl. 21 June 2/4 How many local councils..are riddled with freemasonry? At how many appointments are the best men..passed over because they are not on the square?
IV. attrib. and Comb.
13. a. In parasynthetic combs., as square-barred, square-based, square-bladed, square-bodied, square-bracketed, square-ended, square-faced, square-pupilled, square-sectioned, square-shaled, etc.; or with pa. pples., as square-built, square-ground, square-hewn, square-hung, square-made, square-pied, etc.; also square footage; square-looking.
1832J. Rennie Consp. Butterfl. & M. 164 *Square-barred Single Dot.
1857Miller Elem. Chem., Org. 605 It is deposited in *square-based anhydrous octohedra.
1611Cotgr., Sang-de-dez, little *square-bladed pocket daggers.
1643R. Baker Chron. (1653) 580 Sir Francis Drake,..a short *square-bodied man. 1752J. Hill Hist. Anim. 204 The square-bodied Syngnathus.
1970Guardian 26 Nov. 13/4 Attention is focussed on the heavy-typed and *square-bracketed passages.
1843James Forest Days ii, A tall, powerful, and *square-browed man.
1687Miége Gt. Fr. Dict. ii, *Square built, bâti en carré. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 191 He stood..regarding his..square-built brother opposite. 1891Tablet 12 Sept. 437 Of contemporaneous design, like a square-built house.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Square-Butted, the yard-arms of small shipping so made that a sheave-hole can be cut through without weakening the yard.
1731P. Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Lotus, Red *square-codded Birds-Foot Trefoil.
1849Cupples Green Hand xix, As *square-countered and flat-breasted a ten-gun model as ever ran her nose under salt-water.
1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 540 The *square-eared wheat is a very productive kind. 1832Scoreby Farm Rep. 9 in Husb. (L.U.K.) III, The square-eared, or some other of the coarse descriptions [of barley].
1611Cotgr., Escappe, a small *square-edged circle, or fillet in a piller, &c. 1850Holtzapffel Turning III. 1319 Applying the stone longitudinally upon a square-edged mill.
1792M. Wollstonecraft Rights Wom. iv. 145 The *square-elbowed family drudge.
1923Trans. Scottish Ecclesiological Soc. VII. 65 The Lady Chapel was..removed and a long *square-ended one substituted. 1936W. Faulkner Absalom, Absalom! 369 He saw then the square-ended saw chunk beside the wall. 1978A. & G. Ritchie Anc. Monuments Orkney 71 The church consisted of a rectangular nave with a porch at its W end and a square-ended chancel at the E end.
1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. II. iii. xxiv. 32 She was of the same curly-haired, *square-faced type as Mary. 1884F. M. Crawford Rom. Singer I. 108 This square-faced boy of mine was more than a match for her.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 460 The face of a Lyon is not round,..but rather it is *square figured.
1963A. Smith Throw out Two Hands i. 16 One man sitting down in a thing 3 feet 11 inches by 2 feet 11 inches tends to occupy the bulk of the available *square footage.
1879Mrs. A. G. F. E. James Ind. Househ. Managem. 11, I actually once saw *square-fronted night-dresses!
c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 15836 A wel longe pyk *Squar grounden, scharp, euenlyk.
1899Marg. Benson & Gourlay Temple of Mut i. 2 The *square-hewn doorways of the tombs hollowed out in the face of the cliff.
1874G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 255, I am not so sure of the tiles being *squarehung—they may have been lozenges.
1892Gunter Miss Dividends ix. 117 Two or three *square-jawed, full-lipped Mormon friends of his.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §914 They are all to be *square-jointed at least 2 inches from the face.
1845Poe in Godey's Lady's Bk. Feb. 63/1 On the very tips of their heads were certain *square-looking boxes. 1853Lynch Self-Improv. 11 A rude square-looking country lad.
1820Scott Monast. xxxv, Saunders was a short *square-made fellow.
1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 6963, *Square-mouthed travelling bags. 1894Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. II. 479 The largest of the group is the square-mouthed, or Burchell's rhinoceros (R. simus).
1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. i. 5 The *Square Nos'd Hand-Vice.
1868G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 178 Like the skin of a white snake *square-pied with black.
1957T. Hughes Hawk in Rain 39 And looked down A *square-pupilled yellow-eyed look.
1964W. L. Goodman Hist. Woodworking Tools 99 Another jack..with a similar casting screwed to a *square-sectioned wooden stock.
1592Greene Upst. Courtier (1871) 31 A *square set fellow, well fed and briskly appareled. 1888Eggleston Graysons i. 6 Henry Miller was a square-set young fellow, without a spark of romance in him.
1816Scott Antiq. xvii, That stretch of wall with *square-shafted windows.
1917E. Pound Lustra 183 Breaking the riven waves On *square⁓shaled rocks.
1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. 108 A dark, tall, *square-shouldered man.
1704Lond. Gaz. No. 3984/4 A Neat's Leather Saddle, *square Skirted. 1860Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. II. 303 Wig, square-skirted coat,..and all the queer costume of the period.
1822Hortus Anglicus II. 71 H. Nepetoides, *Square-stalked Hyssop. Stem sharply quadrangular.
1872–4Jefferies Toilers of Field (1892) 311 In the ditches the *square-stemmed figwort is conspicuous by its dark green.
1838Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 279/2 The thread of a *square threaded screw.
1848Rickman Styles Archit. 49 If it be *square-topt, it is called a tower. 1882O'Donovan Merv Oasis I. 327 This village..consisting of little more than fifty square-topped huts.
1898J. A. Gibbs Cotswold Village 3 A tiny village with its *square-towered Norman church.
b. square-maker (see quot.).
c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 151 A square-maker, a shipwright who cuts the butts to receive the oakum, and prepares the work ready for the caulkers.
14. In collocations used attributively, as square-box house, square-thread screw, etc.
1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 421 Noctua obeliscata. The square-spot Dart. 1859Boyd Recreat. Country Parson v. 188 The square-box house comes forward humbly. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Square-Topsail Sloop, sloops which carry standing yards. 1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 252 Specimens of square-top Osage thorn. 1869Rankine Machine & Hand-tools Pl. Q 16. 2 It is worked..by square-thread screws. 1893Times 14 July 3/1 The same square-sett system of timbering.
15. a. In special collocations: square battalion, battle, body (see quots.); † square book, some variety of church song-book; † square-bore (see quot.), bracket (see bracket n. 5); square capital Palæogr., a form of rectilinear capital letter, spec. characterizing a script used in early Latin manuscripts (cf. rustic a. 5 b); square coupling, (see quots.); square cut, (a) (see quot. 1850; cf. square-cut a. 1); (b) Cricket, a cut hit square on the off-side; hence square-cut v. trans., to cut (a ball) thus: square cutter; square dance, a dance in which four couples face inwards from four sides; also loosely, a country-dance; hence square-dance v. intr.; square dancer, -dancing vbl. n.; square dinkum: see dinkum a.; square drive Cricket, a drive hit square on the off-side; hence square-drive v. trans., to drive (a ball or bowler) in this manner; square engine, an internal-combustion engine in which the length of the stroke is approximately equal to the bore of the cylinders; square-eyed a. joc., affected by or given to excessive viewing of television; square-face, frame, gin (see quots.); square-header, a square-headed sail; square Hebrew Palæogr., the standard Hebrew script which displaced the Aramaic form towards the end of the Biblical period, and has been adopted for use in printed texts; square hit, a hit at right angles to the wicket, esp. to square-leg; square John N. Amer. slang, an upright, respectable person; spec. one who is not a drug-addict; square-joint, -knot (see quots.); square law Physics, a law relating two variables one of which varies either directly or inversely as the square of the other (cf. inverse square (law) s.v. inverse a. 3 a); also used attrib. of a device whose action obeys the square law; square-leg, the position in the cricket-field to the left of the batsman and nearly in a line with the wicket; the fielder stationed at this point also attrib.; hence square-leg vb.; square-lipped rhino(ceros = white rhino(ceros) s.v. white a. 11 a; square main-sail, mark, Naut. (see quots.); square motor = square engine above; square-mouthed rhino(ceros = white rhino(ceros) s.v. white a. 11 a; † square muscle, one of the quadrate muscles of the loins; square-net, a fine net suspended so as to enclose a square, used in trapping hawks; † square-pair Mining (see quot. 1747); square piano, pianoforte, a piano of a rectangular form, now superseded by the upright or cottage piano; square pin: on an electrical plug, a pin with a rectangular rather than a circular cross-section; square ribbon, Naut. (see quots.); square-rig, (a) Naut. (see quot. 1875); (b) Naut. slang, the uniform of a naval rating (see also quot. 1942); square-rigger, a square-rigged vessel; a sailor on such a vessel; square-roof (see quot.); † square rule, = square n. 1; square serif Typogr., a type-face distinguished by straight serifs as thick as the other parts of the letters; square sets, shoot, (see quots.); square-shooter slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.), an honest, dependable, sound person; hence square-shooting a., honest, respectable; square staff, -stern, -tailing, (see quots.); square thread Mech., a screw thread which in cross-section is castellated in form, with the width and height of the thread equal to the width of the valley between threads; square timbers, tuck, twelves, (see quots.); square wave Electronics, (a voltage represented by) a periodic wave that varies abruptly in amplitude between two fixed values, spending equal times at each; square well Nucl. Physics, a potential well of square section; square wheels, used joc. of a set of wheels which give a jolting ride, as if they were square; also fig.square work (see quots.); square-wright Sc., a carpenter whose work requires much use of the square; also attrib.; square yards, Naut. (see quots.)
Some of these have arisen by ellipse, as square Hebrew (sc. characters); also square manuscripts (i.e. written with these characters).
1710J. Harris Lex. Techn. II, *Square Battel or Battalion of Men, is one that hath an equal number of Men in Rank and File. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (Rtldg.) 259/1 Not..accustomed to draw up in a spiral form, but in the square battalion.
1711Milit. & Sea Dict., A *Square Body; Which has as many Men in File as in Rank, and is equal whatsoever Way it faces. c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 151 Square body, the figure which comprehends all the timbers whose areas or planes are perpendicular to the keel, which is all that portion of a ship between the cant bodies.
1537–8Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 378 Paid..for carolles for cristmas and for v *square bookes. 1538Accs. Wells Cath. Chapter (MS.) 13 May, Libros cantuum crisporum sive diversorum, vulgariter nuncupatos square books and pricke song books.
1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. 48 The *Square-bore, is a square Steel Point or shank, well temper'd, fitted into a square Socket in an Iron wimble... Its use is to open a Hole [etc.].
1891Daily News 14 May 5/2 They place notes of interrogation..or notes of exclamation within *square brackets.
1699M. Lister Journey to Paris 108 The same MS{ddd}is written in *Square Capitals and very short Lines. 1883[see rustic a. 5 b]. 1906E. Johnston Writing & Illumin. & Lettering i. i. 37 Square Capitals were formed, pen-made Roman Capitals, of the monumental type.
1831–3Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 110/1 Even in small machines, the *square coupling has been in many cases supplanted by the cylindrical box. 1855Ogilvie Suppl., Square-coupling, in mill-work, a kind of permanent coupling, of which the coupling-box is made in halves and square.
1850Holtzapffel Turning III. 1323 The *square cut, or trap cut, is the most simple form of cutting facets. 1897K. S. Ranjitsinhji Jubilee Bk. Cricket iv. 164 A *square-cut travels somewhere between point and third-man. It is the commonest form of cut. 1906A. E. Knight Complete Cricketer ii. 77 Cuts are generally termed forward cuts, late cuts, and square cuts. 1956N. Cardus Close of Play 150 Those who saw him will cherish memories of his vehement hooking..his square-cuts. 1976Dexter & Makins Testkill 167 Hunt let the first ball go by, then square-cut the second with great majesty.
1920D. J. Knight in P. F. Warner Cricket 32 Another beautiful *square cutter is J. T. Tyldesley.
1870L. M. Alcott Old-Fashioned Girl vii. 132 I'm going to begin with a redowa, because..it's better fun than *square dances. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXVII. 375/2 ‘Dull Sir John’ and ‘Faine I would’ were square dances popular in England three hundred years ago. 1955Times 28 June 11/4 The term ‘square dance’ is the American equivalent of the English ‘country dance’.
1959Manch. Guardian 7 Aug. 6/4 The entire population turns out to *square-dance in the main streets.
1976West Lancs. Evening Gaz. 15 Dec. i. 8/2 One woman *square dancer had fallen on the polished floor of the hall.
1977Times 24 Jan. 4/7 The mass free admission square dance..bore witness that *square dancing is alive and well across the continent.
1900W. J. Ford Cricketer on Cricket xii. 140 His strokes are limited to the off-side, chiefly cuts and *square drives.
1954J. Fingleton Ashes crown Year 271 May brilliantly *square-drove him for 4. 1977Guardian 3 Jan. 11/7 Amiss began the afternoon by square driving Bedi's first ball for four.
1930Engineering 7 Mar. 303/2 He then analyses the main differences between a *square engine and one with a stroke:bore ratio of 2.
1964J. Braine Jealous God viii. 136 ‘*Square-eyed sods,’ he said. 1976Listener 8 July 2/2 He called the television set ‘the Devil's Box’, claimed..that it would turn the bronzed, outdoor-loving youngster into a round-backed, square-eyed weakling.
1879Forbes in Daily News 13 June 5/5 That potent fluid..that goes by the endearing name of ‘*Squareface’, and that in reality is the rankest of schiedam.
1846A. Young Naut. Dict. 294 *Square frames, in ship⁓building, those frames which are square with the line of the keel, having no bevelling upon them.
1888W. B. Churchward Blackbirding 102 What they called the wine of the country—*square gin. 1892‘R. Boldrewood’ Nevermore II. xvi, A glass of spirits, be it sound cognac,..or..good square gin.
1882Standard 11 Aug. 6/6 Lorna and Chittywee last, the latter with a large jackyardtopsail set, the others having working *squareheaders.
1915N.E.D. s.v. Square a. 15 a, *Square Hebrew. 1948D. Diringer Alphabet 261 The Aramaic script therefore became the parent of the ‘square Hebrew’. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia IV. 983/1 Between the 6th and 2nd centuries BC, Classical, or Square, Hebrew gradually displaced the Aramaic alphabet.
1837New Sporting Mag. XI. 196 By swinging the bat nearly in the direction in which the umpire stands, making a *square hit. 1882Daily Tel. 24 June, A square hit for 2 by Grace followed, which made up the century.
1934Detective Fiction Weekly 21 Apr. 113/1 The man who works for a living..is generally referred to in terms of contempt such as working stiff, Honest John, *Square John, sucker or scissor bill. 1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 112/2 Square John, a dope peddler who is not addicted. 1962‘K. Orvis’ Damned & Destroyed ix. 62, I played it even safer with those uptown Square Johns. 1968Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 2 Nov. 8/1 He kept saying that McWhirter was a ‘square John’. ‘What does a ‘square John’ mean? Does it mean an ordinary law-abiding citizen?’ Mr. Owen-Flood asked. ‘As far as I know,’ Porter replied.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2294/2 *Square-joint, a mode of joining wooden stuff in which the edges are brought squarely together, without rabbeting, tongue, or feather.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Square-Knot, the same as reef-knot.
1921Physical Rev. XVIII. 263 For the weaker [magnetic] fields there is a decided curvature in the lines which gradually smooth out into practically straight lines. It is in this lower region that the ‘*square law’, proposed by Sir J. J. Thomson, holds. 1945Electronic Engin. XVII. 734/2 The valve will work satisfactorily as a square law rectifier. 1958W. T. O'Dea Social Hist. Lighting i. 8 A room forty feet by thirty could be lit quite cheerfully by the candles and would be dismal by the light of a single bulb. The reason is the ‘square law’ so well known to anyone who has studied physics. Ten feet away from a light source the illumination per unit area is only one-hundredth of what it is one foot away, and so on. 1976Nature 29 Jan. 294/2 The vector voltmeters had a bandwidth of 1 kHz and employed a square-law detector following the narrow-band filter.
1851Lillywhite Guide Cricketers 21 The Long Leg for a ‘*square leg hitter’ should stand parallel to the wicket. 1873Routledge's Young Gentlm. Mag. May. 378/1 [He] was very nearly had at square leg the first ‘slow’ he got. 1894Times 28 May 7/3 He made one particularly fine square-leg hit to the boundary.
1882Daily Tel. 8 Sept. (Encycl. Dict.), [He] continued..by *square-legging both bowlers for a couple each time.
[1931C. R. S. Pitman Game Warden among his Charges i. 3 There is the huge, square mouth—from which it derives its sobriquet of ‘square-lipped’.] 1961New Scientist 9 Nov. 340/2 A rare animal, the white or *square-lipped rhino, is threatened by extinction. 1970Nature 28 Mar. 1180/1 (caption) By 1966..there were about 800 southern square-lipped rhinoceroses in the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi reserves in Natal.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 462 Main-sail. This, in a square-rigged vessel, is distinguished by the so-termed *square main-sail.
Ibid., *Square or Squaring Marks, marks placed upon the lifts and braces [as guides in squaring the yards].
1912C. B. Hayward Pract. Aeronaut. 349 Design in this field [sc. aircraft engines] has..gone back to automobile standards of several years ago when it was customary to build what are known as *square motors, i.e. those in which the bore and stroke are the same.
1881Proc. Zool. Soc. 726 The *square-mouthed rhinoceros is a huge ungainly-looking beast. 1915Roosevelt & Heller Life-Histories Afr. Game Animals II. xxi. 662 The square-mouthed rhinos..seemed to be of a perceptibly lighter gray.
1615Crooke Body of Man 802 The first payre are called Quadrati the *square muscles;..they..lye as it were square vpon the rackes of the loynes.
1856‘Stonehenge’ Brit. Sports i. iv. i. 222 Haggards may be trapped in this country with the *square-net, or the bow-net.
1747Hooson Miner's Dict. Q 3, Raising-Pair. These differ from a *Squarepair in this, that instead of a Collar made on the Forks, we make Tenners, so that the Forks are Tennered at both Ends, and the Sliders are Slotted at both Ends to receive the Forks.
1853Dickens Bleak Ho. xxxviii. 379 A little jingling *square piano. 1938R. Field All this & Heaven Too (1939) i. xvi. 208 One of the girls went to a square piano and began trying the keys. 1980Early Music July 377/2 Included in the sale was the Zumpe square piano of 1766 ({pstlg}3,200) the earliest known piano to have been made in England.
1787Brit. Patent specn. 1596 (caption) This figure represents the movement of a *square Piano Forte. 1799Young in Phil. Trans. XC. 135 A square piano forte. 1840Penny Cycl. XVIII. 139/2 The square piano-forte..was taken from the clavichord, but..retains only its shape. 1875Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms s.v. Pianoforte, Upright pianos have been called giraffes from their tall appearance, and horizontal ones have been called couched harp, or square pianoforte. 1965P. Honey Planning Electricity in House iii. 75 The 13-amp. plug has *square pins (which are superior to round pins) and will not fit any other size of socket.
1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Square Ribbons, a synonym of horizontal lines, or horizontal ribbons.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Square-rig, that rig in which the lower sails are suspended from horizontal yards, as distinguished from fore-and-aft rig. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §791/10 Square rig or rigger, a double-breasted uniform. 1951N. Coward Star Quality 24 Attired as they were in the usual ‘Square-Rig’ of British Ordinary Seamen, they caused a mild sensation. 1962W. Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 112/1 Square rig, uniform worn by ‘men dressed as seamen’, the jumper, flannel, jean collar and bell-bottomed trousers. 1979Navy News Feb. 4/1 It is a once-only increase to enable these ratings to complete the replacement of old-pattern suits of square rig, without being out of pocket.
1855C. Nordhoff Merchant Vessel 285 Our mate..had never before been in a ‘*square-rigger’. 1886Daily Tel. 23 Apr. 2/3 There are many old square-riggers..who will be curious to know what there is for Jack on board a steamer to put his hand to.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Square-roof, one in which the principal rafters meet at a right angle.
1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 38/2 In making these Angles we must use a *Square Rule.
1940H. F. Lock Basic Typogr. iii. 30 The modern *square-serif letters are derived from the ‘Antiques’ and ‘Egyptians’ of a century ago. 1967E. Chambers Photolitho-Offset ii. 13 Leading the contemporary field are the square serif and the sans serif. 1978S. Rice Bk. Design 214 Sans serif, typeface design not having the small bracketing accents at the ends of the letter strokes... Square serif letters do not properly belong to this grouping.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., *Square sets, a kind of timbering used in large spaces.
1842Gwilt Archit. Gloss., *Square Shoot, a wooden trough for discharging water from a building.
1914Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 79 *Square-shooter,..a dependable person; a reliable, compact-keeping person. 1928S. Lewis Man who knew Coolidge i. 51 There's a man that it's a pleasure to do business with, a square-shooter if ever there was one. 1937Wyndham Lewis Blasting & Bombardiering i. vi. 63 My friend..was somehow treacherous and not at all the good sport and ‘square-shooter’ I had supposed him to be. 1962E. Lucia Klondike Kate ii. 24 Kitty was looked upon as a ‘square shooter’ in the rough give-and-take game of the Dawson gambling joints.
1922*Square shooting [see animal A. 6]. 1932J. Dos Passos 1919 428 One of them made a speech in English and another one in Sicilian saying that this was a squareshooting concern that had always treated laborers square.
1842Gwilt Archit. Gloss., *Square staff, a piece of wood placed at the external angle of a projection in a room to secure the angle.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Square-stern, a build in which the wing-transom is at right angles to the stern-post, in contradistinction to round stern.
1881Gentl. Mag. Jan. 62 Every five or six years there was a general muster technically termed *square-tailing,..to ascertain the precise number of cattle upon the station.
1908E. Oberg Handbk. Small Tools i. 29 The Acme thread..has of late become widely used, having in most instances taken the place of the *square thread on account of its better wearing qualities. 1939S. E. Winston Machine Design iii. 72 The Square Thread..is probably the most typical transmission screw thread, as its mechanical efficiency is considerably higher than that of such threads as the V thread. 1975Bram & Downs Manuf. Technol. iv. 120 In the square thread the sides are parallel and normal to the axis of the screw.
c1850Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 151 *Square timbers, the timbers which stand square with, or perpendicular to, the keel.
1846A. Young Naut. Dict. 355 When the after part of the ship terminates in a straight plane which is nearly vertical, instead of the plank running up to the counter, she is said to have a *square tuck.
1888Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 130 *Square twelves, twelvemo laid down in imposition the ‘short’ or ‘square’ way, in contradistinction to ‘long twelves’.
1944Jrnl. Scientific Instruments XXI. 64 (heading) A simple variable ‘*square-wave’ stimulator for biological work. 1965Wireless World Sept. 460/1 One popular method of amplifier stability assessment is ‘square-wave testing’ in which a suitable square wave is applied to the input, and the output inspected on an oscilloscope screen. 1975G. J. King Audio Handbk. v. 120 It is assumed that the input waveform is a true square wave of very small rise time.
1939Physical Rev. LVI. 890/1 The *square well fitting proton-proton scattering is not as deep as that fitting proton-neutron scattering. 1954Ibid. XCVI. 461/1 The smoothing of the edges of the square-well potential was of significance for the interpretation of the elastic proton scattering with heavy nuclei. 1975W. F. Hornyak Nuclear Structure iv. 242 Another simple potential well used to represent the average potential of the single-particle model is the three-dimensional square well.
1924Radio Times 19 Dec. 594/1 (Advt.), Thousands of Wireless enthusiasts..are running their broadcasting reception on *square wheels, enduring..distortion... Are you getting square wheel reception? 1977‘O. Jacks’ Autumn Heroes viii. 111 It was almost impossible to stand upright. The truck was operating on square wheels.
1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-m. 233 *Square work, an old system of working the Thick coal by getting the upper beds first and then the lower ones. Ibid., Square work, a system of working a seam of coal by cutting it up into square blocks or pillars.
1752Records of Elgin (New Spald. Cl.) I. 464 All chests, chairs, stools, spades, staves and other *squarewright work. 1825Jamieson Suppl., Squarewricht, a joiner who works in the finer kinds of furniture. Lanarks.
1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), *Square, a term peculiarly appropriated to the yards and their sails, implying..that they are of greater extent than usual.
1794Rigging & Seamanship 257 *Square. This term is applied to yards that are very long.
b. In specific or distinguishing names of plants, animals, etc., as square barley, dory, -ear, fish, mussel, etc.; square flipper [app. a folk etymologizing of Newfoundland dial. fipper, fripper, etc. (also used), of uncertain origin], the bearded seal, Erignathus barbatus, native to Arctic regions; square-tail, (a) (see quots. 1843, 1896); (b) the char or brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, native to eastern North America.
a1722Lisle Husb. (1757) 152 *Square-barley, or winter-barley..is commonly sown in the mountainous parts of northern countries. 1731P. Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Hordeum, Winter or Square Barley, or Bear Barley; by some call'd Big.
1803Shaw Gen. Zool. IV. ii. 291 *Square Dory. Zeus quadratus.
1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 540 The new sorts of wheat in that county are..the *square-ear, and the hoary brown.
1681Grew Musæum i. v. ii. 110 The *Squar-Fish. Piscis quadrangularis.
1774G. Cartwright Jrnl. 12 Dec. (1792) II. 38 A *squarephripper was caught in a net to-day. 1784T. Pennant Arctic Zool. 161 The Seal-hunters in Newfoundland have a large kind, which they call the Square Phipper, and say weighs five hundred pounds. 1832J. McGregor Hist. & Descr. Sk. Brit. Amer. I. 108 The harp seal..the hooded seal..the square flipper, the blue seal, and the jar seal. 1842J. B. Jukes Excursions in Newfoundland I. 312 The ‘square fipper’..is, however, very rare. 1861L. De Boilieu Recoll. Labrador Life 91 These seals are not like the Square Frippers. 1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 173 Hooded or Bladder Nose... Square Flipper. 1884Goode Nat. Hist. Aquat. Anim. 65 note, The Bay Seal,..the Hooded Seal,..and the ‘Square Flipper’ (probably Halichærus grypus). 1911D. M. Lindsay Voyage to Arctic iii. 39 Square flippers..are also found on the coast [of Newfoundland]. 1957Beaver Spring 49/1 They were immensely strong and could carry off a square-flipper seal single-handed.
1681Grew Musæum i. vi. ii. 146 The *Square-Muscle. Concha Rhomboidea.
1548Turner Names Herbes 22 Bunium..may be called in englishe *square perseley.
Ibid. 17 Ascyron..maye be called in english *square saint Johans grasse.
1832J. Rennie Consp. Butterfl. & Moths 56 Dahl's *Square Spot... Wings..with a dusky square spot between the stigmata.
1843Lowe Fishes Madeira 129 Tetragonurus Atlanticus... The *Square-tail, or Sea-raven. 1896Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. V. 398 The curious Mediterranean and Atlantic fish known as Cuvier's square-tail (Tetragonurus cuvieri). 1935B. Perry And gladly Teach vii. 151 The lake was perfect for bathing and boating. There were big ‘square-tails’ in it then. 1972Trout & Salmon Feb. 14/2 It brought to mind an experience I had in Labrador this past summer when I was up there fishing for squaretail trout.
1548Turner Names Herbes 36 Euonymus..maye be called in englishe Spyndle tree or *square tree.
1681Grew Musæum i. vi. i. 130 The *Square-Wilk. Buccina Rhomboidea.
▸ square ball n. (in team ball sports, esp. Association Football), a ball passed sideways across the playing area; a sideways pass.
1967Times 6 Apr. 11/4 Burns sent a *square ball across the penalty area from the left to Whitehead, who cut inside and shot into the far corner of the net. 2000Sun (Baltimore) (Nexis) 21 Sept. 9 d, Senior midfielder Emerson Martin-Silva took a square ball from Tim Sheleheda and finished from 15 yards out to provide the winner five minutes into the extra time.
▪ III. square, adv.|skwɛə(r)|
[f. prec.]
†1. So as to be squared (by multiplication). Obs.
1557Recorde Whetst. E ij, And so moche doth 15 make, being multiplied square.
†2. Steadily, copiously. Obs.
1570B. Googe Pop. Kingd. iv. 47 b, Foure dayes long they tipple square, & feede and neuer reast. 1603Florio Montaigne ii. ii. 198 Iosephus reporteth that by making an Ambassador to tipple square whom his enemies had sent unto him, he wrested all his secrets out of him. 1608R. Armin Nest Ninn. G 3, Hee..got downe into the Seller, and fell to it tipple square, till he was lost, and quite drunck.
3. a. Fairly, honestly; in a straightforward or direct manner. In later use slang or colloq.
1577–82Breton Toyes of an Idle Head Wks. (Grosart) I. 29/1 If that Coggers all were barde,..And euery Gamster would play square: Then some men would hope well to fare.
1661Feltham Resolves ii. xlii. 266 Nature implants a Moral Justice, which, unperverted, will deal square. 1851Mayhew Lond. Lab. I. 324, I never thought of selling anything but tins. How could I, if I wished to do the thing square and proper? 1883Harper's Mag. Jan. 212/1 He'll wonder what sort of a beast I be, When I tell him square out how it seemed to me. 1891H. Herman His Angel 140, ‘I reckon the boy means square,’ muttered the old man.
Comb.1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 8 The old fellows..were what I should call very decent square-dealing men.
b. colloq. Solidly, without reserve.
1867F. W. Newman in Sieveking Mem. (1909) ix. 198 N. C. comes out ‘square’ for the Republican party.
c. colloq. Properly, in correct form.
1889‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms xxviii, Here they were married, all square and regular, by the Scotch clergyman.
d. U.S. colloq. Completely, exactly.
1862E. S. Philbrick Let. 2 Nov. in E. W. Pearson Lett. from Port Royal (1906) 103 His heart failed him and he backed square out. 1880‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abr. xvii. 152 He..shot the dragon square in the center of his cavernous mouth. 1903A. D. McFaul Ike Glidden xxvi. 236 Hain't I bin a-runnin' my legs right square off this four days? 1921R. D. Paine Comr. Rolling Ocean i. 8 It surely did hit me square between the eyes.
e. Mus. In a square fashion (square a. 8).
1960L. Bernstein Joy of Music 105 Now that you've heard what syncopation is like, let's see what that same Blues we heard before would sound like without it... Played ‘square’ by sax, no vibrato.
4. a. So as to be square; in a rectangular form or position; directly in line or in front.
1631Chapman Cæsar & Pompey iii. i, Free minds, like dice, fall square whate'er the cast. 1678Moxon Mech. Exerc. 66 Two edges of two boards, when thus shot, ly so exactly flat and square upon one another, that light will not be discerned betwixt them. 1683― Printing x. ⁋9 The upper-sides of the Holes in the Iron Plates being square Bored. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ., The Dwarf, The German stood square in the most unaccommodating posture that can be imagined. 1821Lamb Elia i. Old Benchers, He walked burly and square. 1852Hawthorne Blithedale Rom xxiv, Logs..piled up square. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xvi, ‘Well, cousin, are you ready to go to meeting?’ said Miss Ophelia, turning square about on St. Clare.
b. square on: (a) Cricket, of a bowler: having one's body square to the batsman; (b) fig., directly, honestly. Also as adj. phr., straightforward.
1963A. Ross Australia 63 ii. 65 His actual delivery, a shade reminiscent of George Tribe's, is made more square-on than is classical. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 145 Jim, we've got to look at this square on. We haven't given the game away. It's given us away. 1977Lancashire Life Dec. 60/2 Some of his more ambitious attempts, however, don't quite ‘come off’, while others are ‘square-on’ to the point of suggesting a lack of imagination.
5. a. At right angles. Freq. const. to, with, etc.
1680Moxon Mech. Exerc. 213 To cut straight down all the way; that is, to cut it square down at right Angles with the outside of the Work. 1728Chambers Cycl. s.v. Roof, Sometimes the roof,..instead of terminating in a Ridge or Angle,..is cut square off at a certain Heighth. 1792Jefferson Writ. (1859) III. 337 In a position square with the streets. 1802James Milit. Dict. s.v. Gun, The carriage..must be cast loose, and trained athwart-ship, square with the ship's sides. 1847Infantry Man. (1854) 74 Pivot men..face square into the new direction. 1856Olmsted Slave States 61 You'll find a path going square off to the right. 1878Huxley Physiogr. xix. 332 The shadows of objects are distorted when the light does not fall square upon their surfaces.
b. Cricket. At right angles to the line of the delivery.
1851J. Pycroft Cricket Field vii. 154 Practise diligently with leg-balls, till balls..a little wide of leg-stump go nearly square. 1891[see fine a. 7 f]. 1909W. Caffyn Seventy-One not Out viii. 90 He was a fine leg⁓hitter, generally hitting square. 1963T. E. Bailey Improve your Cricket i. 38 (caption) The ball has been played behind square, but it can be played in front.
▪ IV. square, v.|skwɛə(r)|
Also 5 squaryn, sqvare, sqware, 6 squyer.
[ad. OF. esquarrer (escarrer, equarrer), = Pg. esquadrar, Sp. escuadrar, It. squadrare:—pop.L. *exquadrāre, f. L. ex out + quadra square. OF. had also esquarrir (escarrir, etc., mod.F. équarrir).]
I. trans.
1. a. To make (a thing) square; to reduce to a square or rectangular form, by cutting or some similar process; to shape by reduction to straight lines and right angles.
Freq. implying the production of a form approaching to a cube.
1382Wyclif 1 Kings v. 17 The kyng comaundide, that thei shulden take the greet stoonus..and thei shulden square hem. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. lxxiv. (Bodl. MS.), Stones..itake oute of quarers and þanne þei beþ ihewe, planed and sqwared. c1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 6100 The poyntes [were] squared eke so pleyn That the Ioynyng was nat sene. c1460J. Russell Bk. Nurture 52 The iij. [knife] sharpe & kene to smothe þe trenchurs and square. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 142 b, The people of Israell..buylded a solemn temple..of stones precyous & quadrat or squared. 1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 263 The Rubies..are scoured and made cleane... Yet can they not square and polyshe them. 1592Greene Def. Conny Catching Wks. (Grosart) XI. 72 His beard squared with such Art. 1653Apol. for Goodwin 4 But this Stone is so ill squar'd, that one way it will be found to narrow, and the other to broad. 1691Lond. Gaz. No. 2668/4 Crown Window Glass..; which may be squared into all Sizes of Sashes for Windows and other Uses. 1754Dict. Arts & Sci. s.v. Book-binding, After which the paste-boards are squared. 1801Southey Lett. (1856) I. 169 A square hedge of thickset, squared most trimly by the shears of the garden-barber. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 415 Those who..squared the Portland stone for Saint Paul's.
fig.1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. xliii. (1739) 70 It was a regular frame in every part, squared and made even by Laws.
b. To make (timber, etc.) square or rectangular in cross-section.
1412–20Lydg. Chron. Troy iv. 2432 With a spere, squared for to byte,..Þe myȝty duke..Rood lyne riȝt..To Anthenor. 1503Acc. Ld. H. Treas. Scot. II. 275 To the wrichtis that squarit the tymir in the Hieland. 1530Palsgr. 731/1, I wyll square thyse ookes to make tymber of. 1560Pilkington Expos. Aggeus (1562) 59 A carpenter which is not cunning to make the house, yet may he square trees. 1663Gerbier Counsel 78 The Timber being squared before it be brought to London. 1725Pope Odyss. v. 316 He smooth'd, and squar'd 'em [sc. trees], by the rule and line. 1791W. Bartram Carolina 312, I have some men at work squaring Pine and Cypress timber for the West-Indian market. 1810Scott Lady of L. i. xxvi, [He] Lopp'd off their boughs, their hoar trunks bared, And by the hatchet rudely squared. 1869Rankine Machine & Hand-tools Pl. H 8 The other end [of the tube] being squared to receive the handle.
c. To mark out as a square or in rectangular form; to convert into, draw up in, a square; to mark off or out in squares.
c1440Pallad. on Husb. ii. 109 A tabul square,..Feet scoris nyne in lengthe, as fele in wide; Let square hit so. 1530Palsgr. 731/1, I squyer, I rule with a squyer, as a carpynter doyth his worke or he sawe it out, je esquarre. 1556J. Heywood Spider & Fly xvii. 27 Whiche sqwyre shall square me, a scantlin well bent, For a right rewle, to show me innocent. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 232 Squar'd in full Legion (such command we had) To see that none thence issu'd forth a spie. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVII. 392/1 Take also the round aft,..and square it down to the pencil line last drawn. 1800Phil. Trans. XC. 541 The Master General has been pleased to issue his directions for the survey of Devonshire, and as much of Somersetshire and Cornwall as will square the work. 1864Lowell Fireside Trav. 288 What frame..ever enclosed such a picture as is squared within the groundsel, side-posts, and lintel of a barn-door. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile vii. 176 The soil, squared off as usual like a gigantic chess-board.
d. With out (or up), in above senses. Also fig.
1565Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Exascio, It is rough hewed or squared out, or it is begunne. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 443 This Pallace standeth alone, and founded vpon the skirt of a.. hill.., squared out from a deualling steepnesse. 1642H. More Song of Soul i. ii. lviii, A large green turf squar'd out, all fresh and fine. 1837W. B. Adams Carriages 96 Two holes are then bored in each mortice in succession, after which they are squared out with proper chisels. 1869Rankine Machine & Hand-tools Pl. Q 16. 2 Mortises are chased, and the ends squared-out. 1875Carpentry & Join. 58 Take care to square up accurately the boards to form the front, back, and sides. 1930T. S. Eliot tr. St.-J. Perse's Anabasis 53 The boundless unreckoned year, squared out with dawns and fires.
e. To form by making square; to cut in square or rectangular form. Also with out.
1584B. R. tr. Herodotus ii. 94 Of the body of this thorne they sawe and square out certaine boardes two cubits longe. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. 133 Of the timber of these trees are squared all necessaries, as well for buildings as all other vses. 1606Choice, Chance, etc. (1881) 38 For his proportion he was squared out of a timber logge, which was crooked at both ends. 1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §742 It is not intended that this wood shall be cut out of large trees, but that it shall be squared from young trees or branches.
2. a. To multiply (a number) by itself.
1571Digges Pantom. i. xxx, Now square 2400 pase, so haue you 576000. Ibid. ii. xii, The number proceeding of the perches squared. 1614W. Bedwell Nat. Geom. Numbers iv. 65, I square the quotient 2, that is, I multiply it by it selfe. 1674S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 193 Then do I square 6, and it is 36. 1766Compl. Farmer s.v. Surveying, To square the diameter, and to multiply that square by 7854. 1804Hutton Course Math. (ed. 4) I. 8, 72 denotes that the number 7 is to be squared. 1894Act 57 & 58 Vict. c. 60 Sch. 2 (2), To half the girth thus taken add half the main breadth; square the sum.
b. To convert (a circle) into an equivalent square; to measure exactly in terms of a square. Also fig.
1624Donne Serm. 14 Goe not Thou about to Square eyther circle [sc. God or thyself]. 1674Boyle Excell. Theol. i. iii. 104 Mr. Hobbs, after all the ways he has taken, and those he has proposed, to square the circle [etc.]. a1704T. Brown Amusem. Ser. & Com., Voy. Wks. 1709 III. i. 12 You may as soon square the Circle, as reduce the several Branches..under one single Head. 1717Prior Alma iii. 366 Circles to square, and Cubes to double, Would give a Man excessive Trouble. 1798Hutton Course Math. II. 311 To square the circle, or find its area. 1871C. Davies Metric Syst. iii. 68 The legislator..cannot square the circle.
c. To reduce (measurements) to an equivalent square; to calculate in square measure.
1811P. Kelly Univ. Cambist I. 260 In squaring the dimensions of artificers work, the Inch is divided into 12 parts. 1828Moore Pract. Navig. 26 In like manner may any dimensions be squared, and the content be found.
3. a. Naut. To lay (the yards) at right angles to the line of the keel by trimming with the braces; to set at right angles to, or parallel with, some other part.
a1625Nomenclator Navalis (MS. Harl. 2301) s.v. Yard, Wee square the Yards, that is make them hang either a Crosse and one Yard-arme not traversed more then th' other. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. i. ii. 17 Hawl home the Top⁓sail Clue-lines, square the Yeard. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780) s.v. Lifts, The yards are said to be squared by the lifts, when they hang at right angles with the mast. 1806T. Moore Steersman's Song iii, But see.., All hands are up the yards to square. 1832Marryat N. Forster xii, The Estelle had squared her mainyard as a signal of submission. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Squaring the Dead-Eyes, bringing them to a line parallel to the sheer of the ship. Ibid., Squaring the Ratlines, seeing that all are horizontal and shipshape. 1894Times 10 July 11/1 Booms were squared off and spinnaker booms rigged.
b. To adjust so as to make rectilinear or rectangular or to set at right angles to something else. Also with up.
1690in Inchaffray Reg. (Bann. Cl.) 140 To divide and appropriat the same..as shall be necessary to square marches amongst the saids adjacent Heritors. 1796Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813) 120 He..gives his words,..Halt! Dress! and corrects and squares his division. 1814Scott Ld. of Isles vi. xiii, The Monarch rode along the van,..His line to marshal and to range, And ranks to square, and fronts to change. 1837J. Morier Abel Allnutt lvii, The clergyman drew forth his book and squared the table with two candles upon it. 1851Mayne Reid Scalp Hunt. xxiii. 171 Having squared her [sc. the mare's] hips to the camp, he whispered something at her head. 1890Anthony's Photogr. Bull. III. 206 To ‘square’ a print upon a mount turn it face down.
fig.1814Cary Dante, Parad. xvii. 25, I feel me on all sides Well squar'd to fortune's blows.
(b)1794Rigging & Seamanship 19 The butts of the coaks are then squared up. 1883Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Rlwy. 8 The stones to be roughly squared up in the beds and joints. 1892Photogr. Ann. II. 369 This should be a useful appliance for squaring up hand cameras.
c. Astrol. To stand in quartile aspect in relation to (another sign).
1697Creech Manilius ii. 70 The Icy Goat, the Crab which square the Scales. 1852‘Zadkiel’ Grammar Astrol. 394 [On] June 4th, 1738, Mars was on the cusp of the meridian, squaring the ascendant.
d. To set or place (some part of the body) squarely.
1819Scott Ivanhoe v, The Saxon domestics squared their shoulders. 1824― St. Ronan's xxxi, She does so stoop and lollop,..so cross her legs and square her arms. 1829Lytton Disowned 149 Square your body a little more to your left. 1881T. A. M'Carthy Calisth. & Drilling 19 Square the heels and stand perfectly steady.
e. refl. To put oneself into a posture of defence. Also fig. Cf. sense 11. orig. U.S.
1823J. F. Cooper Pioneers ii. xv. 223 Square yourself, you lubber,..and we'll soon know who's the better man. 1864‘Mark Twain’ Celebrated Jumping Frog (1867) 107 Caesar..squared himself to receive his assailants. 1893Harper's Mag. Mar. 643/1 With a look of determination on his face, [he] squared himself to write. 1977J. I. M. Stewart Madonna of Astrolabe i. 28, I was squaring myself to the necessity of telling him that I was no good for the purpose he had in mind when our walk came suddenly to an end.
f. Assoc. Football, etc. To pass (the ball) across the pitch, esp. towards the centre.
1972G. Green Great Moments in Sport: Soccer viii. 85 Bloomfield made it 2–3 from a squared header by Groves. 1976E. Dunphy Only a Game? iv. 113 Having to go round the back of the goal and square it back before you could score. 1978Times 12 Jan. 10/3 Tait..squared the ball into the stride of Rafferty who hit in a first-time shot.
II.
4. fig. a. To regulate, frame, arrange, or direct, by, according to, or on some standard or principle of action.
(a)1531Tindale Exp. 1 John (1537) 2 To consente unto y⊇ law that it is ryghteous, and good;..and to rule and square all thy dedes therby. 1589Nashe Anat. Absurdity Wks. (Grosart) I. 16 To eschew womens counsaile, and not to square our actions by their direction. 1620E. Blount Horæ Subs. 506 The very rules, by which all the actions of our life be squared and disposed. 1673Penn Christ. Quaker vi. 540 A Light within, to know their Duty and Square their Lives by. 1712Berkeley Pass. Obed. §13 He who squares his actions by this rule can never do amiss. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. Ded., He squared all his political conduct by their counsil. 1823Scott Quentin D. xiii, The path of royal policy cannot be always squared..by the abstract maxims of religion and of morality. 1864Hawthorne S. Felton (1883) 418 The habits of Sibyl Dacy were so wayward, and little squared by general rules, that nobody..tried to account for them.
(b)1603Shakes. Meas. for M. v. i. 487 Thou art said to haue a stubborne soule That apprehends no further then this world, And squar'st thy life according. 1682Norris Hierocles 83 Having his mind always intent upon the Law of God, squares his life accordingly. 1705tr. Bosman's Guinea 170 According to this Rule, I squared my Conduct in my Judges Office. 1752Fielding Amelia xii. v, The bailiff had squared his conscience exactly according to law. 1809Malkin Gil Blas x. vi. ⁋13 They..have squared their conduct for a length of time according to the maxims of their order. 1850W. Irving Goldsmith xxiii. 239 Peter was poor but punctilious, squaring his expenses according to his means.
(c)1818Scott Hrt. Midl. viii, An accommodating conscience of a military stamp, and which squared itself chiefly upon those of the Colonel and paymaster. 1850W. Irving Mahomet II. 104 He had shrewd maxims on which he squared his conduct.
b. To adjust or adapt, to cause to correspond to, or harmonize with, something.
(a)1583B. Melbancke Philotimus C iv, If thou canst..square thy life to her direction, she will allowe thee two seruants. 1634Milton Comus 329 Eie me, blest Providence, and square my triall To my proportion'd strength. 1682Norris Hierocles Pref. 29 Those Heathens who squared their actions to the law of natural reason. 1747Richardson Clarissa II. 166, I should not know how to square it to my own principles. 1819Keats Otho ii. i, I cannot square my conduct to time, place, Or circumstance. a1855J. J. Blunt On Early Fathers (1857) vi. 406, I am led to doubt if the testimony of the Fathers can be squared to it.
refl.1715M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 169 The same Resolves, most of the Protestant Reformers Abroad, as well as our Protestant Dissenters at Home, thought themselves oblig'd to square themselves to.
(b)1856N. Brit. Rev. XXVI. 36 Not staying..to square his belief with the stern realities of criticism. 1884Manch. Exam. 19 Dec. 8/4 The promoters do not seek..to square their mission with sociological theory. 1904H. Paul Hist. Mod. Eng. II. iv. 61 Evidence was produced which could not be squared with this plea.
c. To arrange, adjust, render appropriate or exact, etc.
1596Nashe Saffron Walden Wks. (Grosart) III. 195 Your booke being readie for the Presse, Ile square & set it out in Pages. 1669Phil. Trans. IV. 1134, I had no thought of squaring the comparison to agree in all circumstances. 1861Max Müller Sci. Lang. Ser. i. (1864) 340 Any attempt at squaring the classification of races and tongues must necessarily fail. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. i. xi. I. 144 When the majority belongs to the same party as the President, appointments are usually arranged, or to use a familiar expression, ‘squared,’ between them.
d. With out in above senses.
1578Chr. Prayers in Priv. Prayers (1851) 514 That we..may square out all our doings, words and thoughts, by thee. 1592Conspir. Pretended Ref. 86 Doe not they..exact and seeke to square out..all ciuill policies..vnto the Iudicials of Moyses. 1603H. Crosse Vertues Commw. C 2 b, No man is wise, happy, or any thing worth, if Temperance square not out the course of his life. 1628Prynne Love-lockes 21 The rules for naturall, must regulate and square out the length of artificiall Haire. a1661Fuller Worthies (1662) I. xv. 45, I hope..both being put together, may square out the most eminent of the Antient Gentry, in some tolerable proportion.
e. colloq. With away: to put in proper order, to tidy up, to ‘sort out’.
1909R. A. Wason Happy Hawkins (1912) xvi. 203 She had a head on her, Barbie had, an' when she got squared away, she made 'em all get down an' scratch. 1947Seafarers' Log 19 Dec. 10/1 Motion carried that Ship's Delegate contact all tripcard men who have not acted in a way becoming to a Union man and get them squared away. 1956H. Kurnitz Invasion of Privacy xiv. 87 Let's get you squared away, Mr. Jarrold. You knew damn well what you were doing..didn't you? 1966T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 i. 20 He outlined what she was in for..decide what to liquidate and what to hold on to, pay off claims, square away taxes, distribute legacies. 1980‘R. B. Dominic’ Attending Physician ii. 12 We've got Mrs Bertilucci squared away... Sorry about her yelling at you.
5. To bring to an equality on both sides; to make even so as to leave no difference; to balance.
a. With accounts as object. Freq. fig.
1815Ann. Reg., Gen. Hist. 22 For the purpose of squaring the civil list accounts. 1860Thackeray Lovel iv, She would accept benefits,..but then she insulted her benefactors, and so squared accounts. 1888Symonds Life of B. Cellini I. Introd. p. xlvii, He left the land of his adoption before he had properly squared accounts with King Francis.
b. With other objects.
1825Scott Jrnl. 7 Dec., Square the odds, and good-night Sir Walter about sixty. 1828Ibid. 23 Feb., On squaring his books and making allowance for bad debts [etc.]. 1853R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour xviii. 87 If he couldn't square matters at short notice, he would have no better chance with an extension of time. 1868Chesney in Wellesley's Desp. 813 The Directors..still clung to trade as the only means of squaring their balance-sheet.
c. colloq. To put (a matter) straight; to settle satisfactorily, to compound.
1853Dickens Bleak Ho. xxii, ‘I have squared it with the lad,’ says Mr. Bucket, returning, ‘and it's all right’. 1872Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 615 We always square it with the usher.
d. With up: To settle (a debt, etc.) by means of payment.
1821J. A. Quitman Let. 4 Dec. in J. F. H. Claiborne Life & Corr. J. A. Quitman (1860) I. 69, I paid my $25, squared my bill, and departed. 1855‘Q. K. P. Doesticks’ Doesticks, what he Says xvii. 141 Damphool squared up his broad bill, and paid his washerwoman, which left him dead broke. 1862Mrs. H. Wood Mrs. Hallib. iii. xiv, I can square up some of my liabilities here. 1868Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 393 Square up everything whatsoever that it has been necessary to buy.
absol.1904N. & Q. 10th Ser. I. 62 It was high time for the young gentleman in the parlour to square up or to seek accommodation elsewhere.
e. Sport. To make the scores of (a match, etc.) equal. Also absol.
1923Daily Mail 8 May 12 The American captain missed his chance to square at the 17th, where he had a putt of 4 feet to win the hole. 1926Wodehouse Heart of Goof ii. 66 Bradbury, driving another long ball, won the fifteenth, squaring the match. 1955Times 26 July 3/1 England, in fact, if they are to win..must make 366 in six hours to-day, while South Africa, to square the rubber, have eight wickets yet to take. 1976J. Snow Cricket Rebel 54 The last few tense and dramatic overs later on in the final Test in Georgetown when the West Indies were pressing for victory to square the series.
6. slang or colloq.
a. To conciliate, satisfy, or gain over (a person), esp. by some form of bribery or compensation; to get rid of (one) in this way.
1859Slang Dict. 100 Squaring his nibs, giving a policeman money. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xlix, I told him the truth of the..story, and I think he is squared. 1885Manch. Exam. 7 Jan. 5/4 Rich offenders..‘square the reporters’ by giving them bribes on condition that their names shall not be printed in the newspapers.
b. To dispose of by murder.
1888W. B. Churchward Blackbirding vii. 128 His ‘getting square’, meant cutting throats; and if he didn't lie, it would have taken a big ship to carry all the people he'd ‘squared’ up to date.
c. Austral. With off: to placate or conciliate (a person). Also intr.
1945Baker Austral. Lang. vi. 134 Square off, to, to apologize, to produce a glib explanation for some lapse or misdeameanour. 1969Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 15 Jan. 7/3 Moloney said..that he had been drinking at hotels... As they were driving home, he..decided..to buy beer to ‘square off’ with his wife. 1976Nature 19 Feb. 519/2 Squaring off the proprietors of the three national chains of newspapers, whose unquestioning support he [sc. Mr. Fraser] enjoyed throughout the campaign.
III. intr.
†7.
a. To deviate or diverge, to vary (from something). Obs.
c1450in Aungier Syon (1840) 294 Sober, demewre, and chereful to speke to,..who[se] sadnes is not wonte to suffer them notably to square in their demenynge. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 93/1 The blessyd Lucye hath..Rightful goyng and deuocion to god with out squaryng out of the way. 1521Fisher Serm. agst. Luther iv. Wks. (1876) 337 The prophetes somtyme left vnto themselfe dyd square from the trouthe. 1549Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Rom. 19 Whiche froward minde,..synce it squareth from Gods pleasure, cannot be but against him. 1582Stanyhurst æneis To Rdr. (Arb.) 15, I made a prosodia too my selfe squaring soomwhat from thee Latin. 1609Holland Amm. Marcell. 204 Yet there is not a definitive sentence of his touching any controversie known, squaring from the truth.
†b. To digress from one's subject. Obs.
1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 29 That thereby they might understand..that I had not greatly squared, if I had pursued many moe diuisions. 1570Googe Pop. Kingd. ii. 18 The Preacher..oft leauing it [sc. the Word], doth square And spend the tyme about complaints [etc.].
†c. To fall out of order. Obs.—1
1583T. Stocker Civ. Warres Lowe C. iv. 66 b, The enemie [was]..so handled, as that his Souldiers squared somewhat out of order.
†8.
a. To fall out, to be at variance or discord, to disagree or quarrel, with a person, etc.
1530Palsgr. 731/1 Of all the men lyvyng I love not to square with hym. 1548Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Acts 24 Sence your prohibicions doe vtterly square with his commaundementes, and that we cannot satisfie both the one and eke the other. 1561T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer iii. (1577) R viij, See Madam, our enimies begin to breake and to square one wyth another.
†b. Without const. Obs.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 255 Touchyng the stuffe wherof every of the saied garlandes was made, Gellius & Suetonius dooe square & disagree. 1580Sir H. Gifford Poems (Grosart) 103 When men doe square for euery fly, To make them friends the women runne. 1593Nashe Christ's Tears Wks. (Grosart) IV. 201 Lyke the Geometritians, they square about poynts and lynes, and the vtter shew of things. 1607Middleton Fam. Love iv. iii, Answer me roundly to the point, or else I'll square.
†c. To dissent or differ from a person. Obs.—1
1600Holland Livy xxxix. lii. 1056 But I accord neither with them nor with Valerius. From them I square, because I find [etc.].
9. a. To accord, concur, or correspond, to agree or fit, with something.
1592W. Wyrley Armorie 3 Wherein I may peraduenture not square in opinion with some others. 1608D. T. Ess. Pol. & Mor. 118 b, True Vertue is alwaies like herselfe, she squares with euery accident. 1695Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth i. (1723) 42 The present Circumstances of these Marine Bodies do not square with those Opinions. 1745P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 139 When any other Person's Account happens not to square exactly with what himself has observed. 1781Cowper Charity 559 All disguises shall be rent away That square not truly with the scripture plan. 1843Le Fevre Life Trav. Phys. II. ii. ii. 185 The apartment which he occupied squared well with its tenant. 1885Clodd Myths & Dr. i. iii. 45 The theory may be pushed to extremes in compelling every fact to square with it.
†b. Const. to or unto. Obs.
1593R. Bancroft Daungerous Pos. iv. xv. 185 Thinges had not squared to their likings. 1642Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. 8 There is no Church, whose every part so squares unto my Conscience. a1691Boyle Hist. Air (1692) 71 These two notions..square to all other the instruments and phenomena in nature. 1724A. Collins Gr. Chr. Relig. 251 Yet cannot this prophesy be made to square to the event.
c. Without const.
1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 29 In matters of life.., seeing they both square and differ herein from the Protestants [etc.]. 1687Dryden Hind & P. ii. 178, I set 'em by the rule, and as they square Or deviate from undoubted doctrine there, This Oral fiction, that old Faith declare. 1800Coleridge Piccolom. v. ii, A joy it is To exercise the single apprehension Where the sums square in proof. 1849Cupples Green Hand xiii. (1856) 133 Of all things in the world, that is the very thing where your views and mine happen to square.
10. To strut or swagger. Obs. exc. dial. † Also with it and out.
(a)1590Greene Neuer too Late Wks. (Grosart) VIII. 165 Squaring in the streetes when thou shouldest bee meditating in thy chamber. 1591Savile Tacitus, Hist. ii. lxxx. 105 The Tribunes also and other captaines in terrible sort, with multitudes of armed men, went squaring and ietting the streetes. 1601Holland Pliny II. 115 Whereby..those gallants againe, squaring and ruffling thus in their colours, might court faire ladies. 1847–in dial. glossaries (Devon, Lincs., Yorks.).
(b)1592Greene Upst. Courtier B 3 b, As quayntlye as if some curious Florentine had trickte them vp to square it vp and downe the streetes before his Mistresse. 1626Breton Fantastickes Wks. (Grosart) II. 11/1 Now plummes and spice, Sugar and Honey, square it among pies and broth.
(c)a1600Deloney Gentle Craft ii. v, O the passion of my heart, how the villaine squares it out? 1605Camden Rem. (1623) 204 At another time, malapert boldnesse will square it out.
11. a. To put oneself into a posture of defence; to assume a boxing attitude.
1820Hogg Bridal Polmood vi, He spit upon his hand and squared. 1823Mrs. Sherwood Henry Milner (ed. 2) iii. xvi, Then beginning to square (to use an expression of Mr. Claydon's) the enemy took to his heels. 1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xi, Selecting the one most of his own size, he squared and advanced on him.
b. Const. at or up to (a person). Also fig.
1827De Quincey Murder Wks. 1854 IV. 24 Berkeley, feeling himself nettled by the waspishness of the old Frenchman, squared at him. 1848in Bartlett Dict. Amer. 327 There were Polk and Cass fidgetting and squaring up to Queen Victoria. 1893F. C. Selous Trav. S.E. Africa 3 He squared up to his adversary and..struck him a heavy blow.
c. To draw oneself up into a more compact attitude.
1897Westm. Gaz. 26 Feb. 7/1 Mr. Rhodes..pulled himself together and squared up.
d. With off: to assume a fighting attitude. Also fig. orig. U.S.
1838J. C. Neal Charcoal Sketches 41 If he ‘squares off’ at a big fellow, he is obliged..to hit his antagonist on the knee. 1856‘Q. K. P. Doesticks’ Plu-ri-bus-tah xi. 126 Then, at once, squared off at Cuffee, Instantly ‘sailed into’ Cuffee. 1873J. H. Beadle Undevel. West xxxvi. 773 The bow appeared to be rearing up to square off at the midday sun. 1942E. Paul Narrow St. xxix. 267 The rest of the world were squaring off for a life-and-death struggle. 1960T. McLean Kings of Rugby 170 Wellington was still ahead, 6 to 3, as the two teams squared off for the second half. 1974‘E. Lathen’ Sweet & Low iv. 49 The yelling started... It sounded to me like they were going to square off.
12. a. To measure (so much) on each of four sides forming a square; to yield a square of (the dimensions specified).
1789Trans. Soc. Arts VII. 10 Spanish Chestnut Trees of a large size (one of them squared upward of two feet). 1792Ann. Reg., Nat. Hist. 386 If it be cut when it squares only six inches, it will be as durable as an oak of six times its size and age. 1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 255 The alder..frequently squaring a foot for twenty feet in height. 1840Schomburgk Brit. Guiana 93 Some of the blocks would square ten to twelve feet.
b. To increase in amount by squaring; to become square in form.
1854Chambers's Jrnl. II. 280 The extravagant accounts..seem not only to square, but to cube spontaneously. 1902Rickart Cypress Swamp 46 His face had squared and hardened in its lines.
c. Naut. To sail away with the yards squared. Also fig., to get moving; to put oneself into shape; to make ready.
1849N. Kingsley Diary 3 Sept. (1914) 57 The wind died away and soon sprung out from the South and [we] squared away before it. 1868H. Woodruff Trotting Horse Amer. ix. 101 They must be wakened up from time to time, so as to make them get out of their sluggish habit and square away. 1887in Cassell's Encycl. Dict. 1889‘Mark Twain’ Connecticut Yankee xxxvii. 479, I didn't waste any time..but squared away for business. 1894Outing XXIV. 422/2 There, he rounds the buoy and squares away. 1899F. T. Bullen Log Sea-Waif 313 We squared away to a spanking breeze. 1961‘E. Lathen’ Banking on Death (1962) xiii. 103 Miss Todd wasted no more time on idle chatter but squared away to her typewriter.
13. colloq. With it: To live or act honestly.
1873in Taylor Life David vii. 91 Give a poor fellow a chance to square it for three months.
14. In Comb., as square-up colloq., a quarrel.
1949Dylan Thomas Sel. Lett. (1966) 339 Bert and I had a regular square-up, but he came over to my way of thinking. |