Also squauk. [Imitative. Cf. SQUARK v.]
1. intr. To call or cry with a loud harsh note; to squall or screech hoarsely.
1821. [implied in SQUAWKING ppl. a.].
1847. Halliwell, Squawk, to squeak.
1879. Miss Yonge, Magnum Bonum, I. 120. A stately black Spaniard [fowl] … squauking and curtseying.
1881. Rae, White Sea Peninsula, v. 56. Clouds of gulls were hovering about,… all hungry, some squawking hoarsely.
b. Of things: To give out a discordant sound; to creak or squeak harshly.
1859. Mrs. Stowe, Min. Wooing, xxix. 275. That bedroom door squawks like a cat.
1869. ‘Mark Twain,’ Innoc. Abr., iv. 29. A disreputable accordion, that had a leak somewhere and breathed louder than it squawked.
2. trans. With out: To utter with or as with a squawk.
1856[?]. Mrs. Whitcher, Widow Bedott Papers, 208 (Bartlett). The way she squawked it out was a caution to old gates on a windy day.
