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squall
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Etymology
From Middle English *squalen and squelen (“to cry, scream, squall”), from Old Norse skvala (“to cry out”), probably ultimately imitative with influence from squeal and bawl.
Cognate with Swedish skvala (“to gush, pour down”), Norwegian skval (“sudden rush of water”). The noun is probably from the verb.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈskwɔːl/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɔːl
Verb
squall (third-person singular simple present squalls, present participle squalling, simple past and past participle squalled)
- To cry or wail loudly.
- 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
- Squalling was the word for it, Pew's anger rose so high at these objections; till at last, his passion completely taking the upper hand, he struck at them right and left in his blindness, and his stick sounded heavily on more than one.
- 1916, Jack London, The Red One:
- Squalling like an infuriated cat, the shadow crashed down
- 1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC:
- The orchestra burst into a sudden loud squalling.
- 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 39:
- Some night-bird, belike, or a sea-gull squalling below the headland.
- 1998, Anne McCafferey, Masterharper of Pern:
- she wrapped the squalling, wriggling baby tightly into the fine cotton sheet
- (of rain) To fall suddenly and forcefully, as if a squall.
- 1994 September 1, Janice Holt Giles, Miss Willie, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 165:
- […] rain squalled fretfully against the schoolhouse roof. Although it had stopped by the time the afternoon recess was due, Miss Willie decided that it was too cold and raw for the children to be out a full half hour, so she sent them […]
- 2009 March 1, Helen Hollick, Kingmaking: Book One of the Pendragon's Banner Trilogy, Sourcebooks, Inc., →ISBN, page 5:
- […] of squalling rain and a blustering westerly wind.
- 2012 July 31, A. William James, Book Thirteen, eBook Partnership, →ISBN:
- Rain squalled sudden against the window. The Old Writer cursed and shouldered out the door.
- 2015 10, Cindy Williams, The Pounamu Prophecy, Rhiza Press, →ISBN:
- Rain squalled in heavy sheets across the street.
- 2018 May 30, Allan W. Waddy, Buckshot & Johnnycakes, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 18:
- […] the sky opened up into a cloud-burst of squalling rain.
Derived terms
Translations
to cry or wail loudly
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Noun
squall (plural squalls)
- (often nautical) A sudden storm, as found in a squall line.
- 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 5:
- Luckily she wasn’t there any more, no one was, when he returned from the Caribbean carnival damp-hatted and soaked through after being caught unprepared by a squall of hard, hot rain.
- 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 10:57 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 3 November 2022:
- With reports of the Japanese forces bearing down on them confirmed, Rear Admiral Sprague orders his ships east, heading towards a series of rain squalls, hoping for concealment. This will hopefully delay the Japanese closing the range, and also draw them away from the much-more-vulnerable landing ships.
- (meteorology) A squall line, multicell line, or part of a squall line.
- A loud cry or wail.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 34, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 163:
- But the third Emir, now seeing himself all alone on the quarter-deck, seems to feel relieved from some curious restraint; for, tipping all sorts of knowing winks in all sorts of directions, and kicking off his shoes, he strikes into a sharp but noiseless squall of a hornpipe right over the Grand Turk’s head; and then, by a dexterous sleight, pitching his cap up into the mizentop for a shelf, he goes down rollicking so far at least as he remains visible from the deck, reversing all other processions, by bringing up the rear with music.
- 2023 August 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Can’t pay and they really do take it away: what happens when the bailiffs come knocking”, in The Guardian:
- The media present rising prices as a passing squall for the middle class, brought on by Vlad ’n’ Liz and resulting in spiking mortgage rates and fewer trips to Waitrose. But beneath those headlines are millions of others for whom the problem isn’t rising prices, but falling incomes.
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
sudden storm, as found in a squall line
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squall line, multicell line or part of a squall line — see squall line
Further reading
- James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Squall”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.
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