squab

English

A nesting dove with squabs

Squab (young pigeon) leg and breast

Etymology

Unknown, unattested before 17th c.. Possibly descended from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Swedish dialect skvabb (“fatty, flabby”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈskwɒb/
• IPA^(key): /ˈskwɑb/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

squab (plural squabs)

1. (sometimes attributive) A baby pigeon, dove, or chicken.
2. The meat of such a baby bird used as food.
3. A baby rook.
4. A thick cushion, especially a flat one covering the seat of a chair or sofa.
   • a. 1744 Alexander Pope (imitating Earl of Dorset), Artemisia, 1795, Robert Anderson (editor), A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, page 86,

     On her large ſquab you find her ſpread, / Like a fat corpſe upon a bed, / That lies and ſtinks in ſtate.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Charles Dickens

     Punching the squab of chairs and sofas.

5. A person of a short, fat figure.
   • a. 1800 William Cowper, The Progress of Error, 1824, Poems of William Cowper, Esq, page 28,

     Gorgonius sits abdominous and wan, / Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan:

Synonyms

• (baby pigeon): piper, squeaker, pigeon chick, young pigeon, baby dove
• (baby rook): rook chick, young rook

Translations

baby pigeon

• Catalan: colomí (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 乳鴿／乳鸽, 乳鸽 (jyu⁵ gaap³)

  Mandarin: 乳鴿／乳鸽 (rǔgē), 乳鸽 (rǔgē)

• Esperanto: kolombido
• French: pigeonneau (fr) m, colombeau (fr) m, colombelle (fr) f
• German: Jungtaube f
• Greek: πιτσούνι (el) n (pitsoúni)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: galambfióka (hu)
• Polish: gołębię (pl) n
• Portuguese: borracho (pt) m
• Russian: голубо́к (ru) m (golubók), голубёнок (ru) m (golubjónok), голу́бка (ru) f (golúbka)
• Serbo-Croatian: golubić (sh), golupče (sh)
• Spanish: pichón (es) m, palomino (es) m
• Swedish: duvunge (sv)
• Volapük: pijunül (vo)

meat of a young pigeon or dove

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鴿肉／鸽肉, 鸽肉 (gēròu)

• Esperanto: kolombidaĵo, kolombidoviando
• French: pigeonneau (fr) m
• German: Täubchen n, Täubchenfleisch n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: πιτσούνι (el) n (pitsoúni)
• Portuguese: borracho (pt) m
• Russian: голубя́тина (ru) f (golubjátina)
• Vietnamese: thịt bồ câu
• Volapük: pijunülamit (vo)

baby rook

• French: bébé corneille, bébé freux, petit de la corneille, petit du freux
• Greek: νεοσσός τρυπανοκόρακα m (neossós trypanokóraka), νεογνό τρυπανοκόρακα n (neognó trypanokóraka)
• Hungarian: varjúfióka
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Polish: gawronię n
• Serbo-Croatian: goluždravac (sh)
• Swedish: råkunge

thick cushion

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 墊子／垫子 (zh) (diànzi), 垫子 (zh) (diànzi)

• Greek: μαξιλάρα (el) f (maxilára)
• Hungarian: díványpárna
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: coxim (pt) m
• Russian: поду́шка (ru) f (podúška)
• Swedish: soffkudde

Verb

1. (obsolete) To fall plump; to strike at one dash, or with a heavy stroke.
2. (transitive) To furnish with squabs, or cushions.
3. (transitive) To stuff thickly and sew through, the stitches being concealed by buttons, etc.

Adjective

squab (comparative more squab, superlative most squab)

1. Fat; thick; plump; bulky.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Betterton

     Nor the squab daughter nor the wife were nice.

2. Unfledged; unfeathered.

   a squab pigeon

   (Can we find and add a quotation of King to this entry?)

3. Clumsy.
4. Curt; abrupt.
5. Shy; coy.

Adverb

squab (not comparable)

1. (slang) With a heavy fall; plump.
   • (Can we date this quote?) L'Estrange

     The eagle took the tortoise up into the air, and dropped him down, squab, upon a rock.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “squab”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• quabs