vbl. sb. Also 8 scailing [f. as prec.] The action of throwing a loaded stick (at a cock or other object).
1756. B. Martin, Misc. Corr., Jan., 229. Cock-scailing, Cock-fighting, Bull-baiting, &c. are of a criminal Nature.
1795. Sporting Mag., VI. 157. The custom of squailing at cocks is very prevalent in the part of the country in which I reside [Ipswich].
1825. Jennings, Observ. Dial. W. Eng., 31. Cock-squailing, a barbarous game, consisting in tying a cock to a stake, and throwing a stick at him from a given distance, so as to destroy the bird.
1847. Halliwell, s.v., Squailing therefore is often very awkwardly performed, because the thing thrown cannot be well directed.
1889. P. H. Gross, in Longman’s Mag., XIII. March, 516. Birds’-nesting, egg-stringing, squailing at birds … these of course were common.
