Chiefly dial. Also 7 squayle, 8– squale, 9 squoil, etc. [Of obscure origin.]
1. intr. To throw a (loaded) stick or similar missile (at some object).
c. 1626. Dick of Devon, II. iii. in Bullen, Old Pl. (1883), II. Not soe much as the leg of a Spanyard left to squayle at their owne appletrees.
1787. Grose, Prov. Gloss., Squale, to throw a stick as at a cock.
1795. in Mrs. Sandford, T. Poole & Friends (1888), I. 112. They happened to meet some men carrying a hen up the street with the intention of squalling [sic] at her.
1821. Southey, Life & Corr. (1849), I. 54. The boys were employed also to squail at the bannets.
1823–. in s.w. dial. glossaries (Somerset, Wilts., Dorset, Hamps., Isle of Wight).
1882. Jefferies, Bevis, II. v. 67. In the orchard Bevis and Mark squailed at the pears with short sticks.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 2 Dec., 2/1. The Marquis’s gamekeepers did not love us, but we squailed in spite of them.
2. trans. To strike or hit by throwing a stick or squailer.
1844. W. Barnes, Poems Dorset Dial., 143. I squâil’d her, though; an’ miade her run.
1884. Contemp. Rev., March, 343. They ‘squailed’ fowls—that is to say, they tied them to stakes and hurled cudgels at them … on Shrove Tuesday, for a treat.
3. To cast or throw. Also fig.
1876. T. Hardy, Ethelberta, II. 240. These easterly rains … come wi’ might enough to squail a man into his grave.
