[f. the vb.]
1. a. One who plays on a squeaking instrument.
1641. Cowley, Guardian, V. xi. Stay at the door, ye sempiternal squeakers. Ibid. (1663), Cutter Coleman St., V. vi. Go home?… no, we’l Dance home; afore us Squeakers, that way.
b. One who squeaks.
1671. Eachard, Obs. Answ. Cont. Clergy, 132. Mimical squeakers and bellowers, and the vain-glorious admirers only of themselves.
1702. Motteux, Prol. to Farquhar’s Inconstant. Your rarity for the fair guest to gape on, Is your nice squeaker, or Italian capon.
c. 1753. Fox, in Trevelyan (1880), ii. 45. I … found Harry in his nurse’s arms…. I called him Squeaker.
1823. Byron, Juan, XI. lxxxv. I have seen the country gentlemen turn squeakers.
c. slang. (See quot.)
1676. Coles, Dict., Squeeker, a Barboy; also a Bastard, or any other child.
2. A bird or animal that squeaks: a. A young pigeon, partridge, etc.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, IV. ii. 179. Thou shalt lie upon thy pallat, and call to thy cook-maid, and say, dresse me that Squeeker for my breakfast.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. lix. 234. Pigeons, Squobbs, and Squeakers.
1829. Col. Hawker, Diary (1893), II. 2. I actually brought home 24 partridges, 20 of which were old ones and two squeakers.
1854. Poultry Chron., I. 263. Squeakers will often return home from long distances though they may have been kept in a considerable time.
1881. Greener, Gun, 535. Mr. Campbell … succeeded in bagging 220 grouse by evening; every ‘squeaker’ was, however, counted.
b. Ornith. One or other of various birds characterized by their squeaking call.
1817. T. Forster, Nat. Hist. Swallowtribe (ed. 6), 9. Hirundo Apus,… Black Swallow, Squeaker, Screamer, Deviling, or Shriek Owl.
1848. J. Gould, Birds Australia, II. pl. 45. Strepera Anaphonensis, Grey Cow-Shrike;… Squeaker of the Colonists. Its note is a piercing shriek.
1896. A. J. North, List Insectiv. Birds N.S.W., I. 1. For instance, Corcorax melanorhampus, Xerophila leucopsis, and Myzantha garrula are all locally known in different parts of the Colony by the name of ‘Squeaker.’
c. slang. A foxhound.
1828. Sporting Mag., XXII. 23. He was often alone with the squeakers, and sometimes racing with the leaders.
d. colloq. A (young) pig.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., iv. If you’d been born a Squeaker.
1889. Baden-Powell, Pigsticking, 28. At this period of his existence he is called a ‘squeaker’ and is not ridden.
e. Zool. (See quots.) Also attrib.
1887. Goode, Fisheries U. S., 651. The lady crab, sand crab, or squeaker crab (Platyonichus ocellatus),… occurs on most sandy shores from Cape Cod to Mexico.
1899. D. Sharp, Insects, 209. The adult Pelobius tardus is remarkable for its loud stridulation…. The Insects are called squeakers in the Covent Garden market.
3. a. slang. (See quot.)
1796. Grose’s Dict. Vulgar T. (ed. 3), s.v., Organ pipes are likewise called squeakers.
b. A device or toy instrument for producing a squeaking sound. Cf. SQUAWKER 1.
1878. Grove’s Dict. Music, I. 124. The ‘squeaker’ which children in the fields fashion out of joints in tall grass.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 8 March, 6/3. A small wooden squeaker … attached to an indiarubber balloon.
4. colloq. A heavy blow. rare–1.
1877. in Casquet of Literature, I. 245/2. We must give him a squeaker quickly or all will go wrong, I tell you.
