[f. SQUARE v.]
1. The action of making square or of reducing to a square form.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 471. Squarynge, quadracio, conquadracio.
1476–7. Sarum Churchw. Acc. (Swayne, 1896), 363. The fellyng of ij Elms and swaryng, iiijd.
1529. More, Dyalogue, I. Wks. 155/1. Now consider, that ye make him by & by fall to ye squaryng of his stones.
1552–3. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), II. 52. Thomas Watson carpender for ye squarynge, framynge, and settinge up … a wall of … timbre.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 198. Ordnance of brasse … very well proportioned in bore and squaring.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xii. ¶ 6. The Squaring the Face and Stems of the Punch.
1725. W. Halfpenny, Sound Building, 32. Enough for squaring of this Rail.
1841. R. H. Dana, Seaman’s Man., 125. Squaring by the lifts makes them [sc. yards] horizontal.
attrib. 1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Squaring Marks, marks placed upon the lifts and braces [as guides in squaring the yards].
1870. Sauzay, Marvels Glass-making, 92. This … fragile glass … [is] placed on wheels and rails, which will convey it still unpolished to the squaring room, where it will be examined, classified [and] cut.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 849/2. Squaring Plow. For squaring paper in book-work. Ibid., Squaring Shears,… a machine for squaring up tinned plate.
b. With off, out or up. Also attrib.
(a) 1611. Cotgr., Equarrissement, a measuring, or squaring out, by a Squire.
(b) 1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 294. Squaring-off, in shipbuilding, signifies plugging off and otherwise tightening the treenails [etc.].
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl., Squaring-off Saw, a circular saw,… to square the ends of work.
(c) 1846. Holtzapffel, Turning, II. 501. When the works are planed with rebates, grooves, or mouldings, the squaring up of the four sides is always the preliminary step.
1869. Rankine, Machine & Hand-tools, Pl. Q 16. 1 It is capable of performing … grooving, tongueing, and squaring-up.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2813/2. The squaring-up and facing tables are on the other side.
c. The manner in which a thing is squared or set square.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xxxvi. Look at … the squaring of her topsails.
† 2. Dissension, wrangling, contention. Obs.
1580. North, Plutarch (1595), 197. Hanniball hearing of their iarre and squaring together [etc.].
1598. Florio, Rissa,… a quarrell,… a strife, a squaring.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXIV. ix. 515. All the centuries besides without any squaring and variance elected the very same.
1621. J. Reynolds, God’s Revenge, I. 153. Hee desired and sought some pretext … to bolster out and apologize his iarring and squaring with his wife.
3. Multiplication of a number by itself.
1579. Digges, Stratiot., 52. Multiplication of moytie in itselfe whiche I name Squaring.
1694. [see BIQUADRATE v.].
4. The process of finding a square equivalent to another magnitude.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v., The Quadrature or Squaring of the Circle, is the finding a Square equal to the Area of a Circle.
1798. Hutton, Course Math., II. 95. It seems intended to make an allowance for the squaring of the tree.
1855. Brewster, Newton, I. ii. 22. Several articles on angular sections, and the squaring of curves.
1881. Routledge, Science, ii. 36. This is the celebrated problem of the Squaring of the Circle.
5. Adaptation, adjustment.
1702. English Theophrastus, 362. The squaring of a man’s thoughts, wishes, and desires to the lot that providence has set out for us, is both a blessing and a duty.
1838. Lytton, Alice, III. ii. I do not understand this new-fangled policy—this squaring of measures to please the Opposition.
6. Assumption of a boxing attitude.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, xxxviii. He … started … into what is called an attitude of self-defence, and … began the operation which is entitled ‘squaring.’
