squib

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Possibly imitative of a small explosion.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /skwɪb/, SAMPA: /skwIb/
• Rhymes: -ɪb

Noun

squib (plural squibs)

1. (military) A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode.

   English Navy squibs set fire to two dozen enemy ships in a Dutch harbor during the 16th century battle against the Spanish Armada.

2. A similar device used to ignite an explosive or launch a rocket, etc.
3. (US) Any small firecracker sold to the general public. Usually available in special clusters designed to explode in series after a single master fuze is lit.
4. (automotive) The heating element used to set off the sodium azide pellets in a vehicle's airbag.
5. (cinema or theater special effects) A small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface.
6. (dated) A short piece of witty writing; a lampoon.
7. (law) In a legal casebook, a short summary of a legal action placed between more fully cited cases.
8. (linguistics) A short article, often published in journals, that introduces empirical data problematic to linguistic theory or discusses an overlooked theoretical problem. In contrast to a typical linguistic article, a squib need not answer the questions that it poses.
   • 2008, William J. Idsardi, Combinatorics for Metrical Feet, in Biolinguistics Vol 2, No 2

     In this squib I will prove that the number of possible metrical parsings into feet under these assumptions […]

9. (archaic) An unimportant, paltry, or mean-spirited person.

Derived terms

• damp squib

Usage notes

In the Harry Potter series, author J. K. Rowling uses squib to mean a child of someone magical who doesn’t have magical powers.

Translations

small firework

Finnish: sähikäinen (fi)

German: Knallfrosch (de) m.

device used to ignite a rocket

Dutch: lont (nl) f.

short piece of witty writing

Icelandic: háðsgrein (is) f., níðkvæði (is) n., stutt, hnyttin eða hæðin atlaga í ræðu eða riti (is) f.

short summary of a case

unimportant, paltry, or mean-spirited person

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Spanish: cachinfín (Honduras), cachinflín (Honduras), canchinfín (Guatemala)

Verb

squib (third-person singular simple present squibs, present participle squibbing, simple past and past participle squibbed)

1. To make a sound such as a small explosion.

   A Snider squibbed in the jungle.

Translations

make a sound such as a small explosion

Dutch: ploffen (nl)