squad

[O. Fr. esquadre, escadre, from Ital. squadra a squadron (q. v.).] quadruadronumber of men a embled for drill or inspection. IMG:content-0135.png:[blocks in formation] Awkward squad : A body of recruits who have not yet mastered their drill sufficiently to take their places in the regimental line; hence, any awkward set of persons. squad, v . t . [SQUAD, 8.] To draw up in a squad. "Squad your men, and form up on the road."-Lever: Charles O'Malley , ch. lxxxvi. *3. Shy, coy, quiet. "Your demure ladies that are so squob in company, are devils in a corner." -Nat . Lee: Prince of Cleve, iii. i. *4. Short, curt, abrupt. "We have returned a squab answer." - Walpole : To Mann, iii. 125. *B. As adv.: With a heavy fall; plump, flop. "The eagle took the tortoise up into the air, and dropt him down, squab , upon a rock." -L ' Estrange: Fables. C. As substantive : 1. A short, fat person. "Gorgon i us sits, abdominous and wan, Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan." Cowper: Progre of Error, 218. 2. A young pigeon or dove. 3. A kind of sofa or couch; a stuffed cushion. "On her large squab you find her spread." Pope : Artemisia. IMG:content-0136.png:[blocks in formation] boil, boy; pout, jowl; cat, çell, chorus, chin, bench; go, gem; thin, this: squally senior for service in the field. Four squadrons form a regiment. The squadron is frequently considered the tactical unit of cavalry. "Rank upon rank, squadron upon squadron pour." Scott: Don Roderick, ix. 2. Naval : A division of a fleet; a detachment of ships of war employed upon a particular service or station, and under the command of a commodore or junior flag officer. "Soon came the North Holland squadron, the Maes squadron, the Zealand squadron ." -Macaulay: Hist. Eng., ch. xviii. IMG:content-0137.png:[blocks in formation] squāil, v. i. [Etym. doubtful.] To throw sticks at cocks. squāil-er, s . [Eng. squail ; -er.] (See extract.) "Now that the trees are bare and the leaves have fallen, the idlers of the county towns may perhaps sally forth armed with squailers , an ingenious instrument composed of a short stick of pliant cone and a leaded knob, to drive the harmle little squirrel from tree to tree, and lay it a victim at the feet of a succe ful shot." - London Daily Telegraph . squal-Id, *squal'-lid, a . [Lat. squalid us stiff. rough, dirty, from squaleo =to be stiff, rough, or dirty; Ital. squall i do .] 1. Foul, filthy; extremely dirty. "They saw a squire in squallid weed." Spenser: F. Q., V. 1. 13. *2. Rough, shaggy. "A bristled boare or else a squalid beare." P. Fletcher: Piscatory Eclogues , v. *squal-l-dæ, s. pl . [Mod. Lat. squal (us); Lat. fem. pl. adj. suff. -ide .] Ichthy.: A family of Plagiostomous fishes, founded by Cuvier. Müller, in his system, elevated it to a sub-order but the genera it comprised are now generally cla ed under Selachoidei (q. v.). squa-lid-1-tě, squal-Id-ne , substan . [Eng. squalid ; -ity, -ne . The quality or state of being squalid; foulne , dirt, fil you r , squalor. squal-Id-lỹ, adv. [Eng. squalid; -ly.] In a squalid manner; dirtily, filthily.