squaller (skwaler)

[ weaving: said of a textile fabric. squaloid (skwa'loid), a. [ form. squalor (skwol'or or skwā'lôr), n. [ A lowering squall obscures the southern sky. Falconer , Shipwreck, ii. 145. ne ; coarsene . No gladlier does the stranded wreck See thro' the gray skirts of a lifting squall The boat that bears the hope of life approach. Tennyson, Enoch Arden. Arched squall, a remarkable squall occurring near ear the equator, in which a ma of black clouds collects and rapidly rises, forming a vast arch, or ring-shaped bed of cloud. The ring of cloud enlarges, and above it ma es of cloud rise higher and higher until they reach the zenith. Then usually, though not invariably, a violent thunder-storm breaks forth, with vivid zigzag lightning, deafening peals of thunder, and torrents of rain, lasting, perhaps, for half an hour. The phenomenon varies in its details in differ ent seas, but occurs most frequently and on the grandest scale in the southern part of the China Sea, the Gulf of Siam, the Sulu Sea, and particularly in the Straits of Malacca. - Black squall, a squall attended with a specially dark cloud. Bull's-eye squall, a white squall of great violence on the west coast of Africa. - Heavy squall, a squall in which the wind blows with much force. - Line squall, a squall accompanying the pa age of the trough of a V-shaped barometric depre ion: so named because the squalls form a line coincident with the axis of the trough, which sweeps acro the country, broadside on, with the progre ive motion of the depre ion. Thick squall, a squall in which the rain or show obscures the view. To look out for squalls, to be on one's guard; be on the watch against trouble or danger. [Colloq.] white squall, a whirlwind of small radius arisingiosude clouds. The only indication of its development is the boiling of the sea beneath the current of ascending air around which the rapid gyrations take place, together with a patch of white cloud, generally formed above it at the level of condensation. These are also the conditions of a waterspout, which may or may not be completely formed, according to the of the whirl and the amount of vapor in the atmosphere. White squalls are infrequent, and rarely occur outside of the tropics; in general they are dangerous only to sailing ve els and small craft. =Syn. Gale, etc. See wind2. squalll (skwal), v. i. [ terribly. [Colloq.] And the quarter-deck tarpauling Was shivered in the squalling . Thackeray, The White Squall.