Forms: 4–5, 7 squele (north. 4 suele, 5 swele), 6 Sc. squeil(l, 7–9 squeel, 7 squeale, 7– squeal. [Imitative.]
1. intr. To utter (or give out) a more or less prolonged loud sharp cry, esp. by reason of pain or sudden alarm; to scream shrilly: a. Of persons.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1344. A new born barn lay in þe croppe,… Þar him þoght it lay suelland [Gött. squeland].
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxvii. (Machor), 145. He … squelyt gret & raryt ȝarne, as kynd gaf to sic a barne.
1508. Kennedie, Flyting w. Dunbar, 39. Baith Iohne the Ross and thow sall squeill and skirle.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 525. He ran … Fra place to place,… With mony schout ay squeilland like a kid.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., II. ii. 24. Ghosts did shrieke and squeale about the streets.
1671. Skinner, To Squall or Squeal out.
1676. Hobbes, Iliad, 339. Enrag’d she … threw it from her, tore her hair, and squeal’d.
1740. Richardson, Pamela, I. 235. She … took hold of my Arm, so roughly, and gave me such a Pull, as made me squeal out.
1778. Miss Burney, Evelina, xlii. They hide themselves, and run away, and squeel and squall, like any thing mad.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. II. 92. He pinched my ear so bitterly, I was fain to squeel.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xxxv. But for appearances,… she’d have squealed no more than a rose-bud pulled from a bush.
b. Of animals or birds.
a. 1400–50. [see SQUEALING vbl. sb.].
1513. Douglas, Æneid, VIII. vi. 112. The catell eik … Baith squeill and low in thai ilk plenteus gatis.
1535. [see prec.].
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1903/4. A Blood bay Stone Horse, between 14 and 15 hands high, being much given to bite and strike and squeel.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 134/2. When he sendeth forth his Cry,… a Rat Squeleth, or Squaketh.
1798. Edgeworth, Pract. Educ. (1811), II. 450. He bit off the ear of a pig because it squealed when he was ringing it.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxiii. 290. Tern were very numerous, hundreds of them squealing and screeching in flocks.
1879. Black, Macleod of D., I. 167. You hear the rabbit squealing with fright long before the weasel is at him.
2. Of things: To emit or produce a shrill or strident sound.
1596. [see SQUEALING vbl. sb.].
1658. trans. Porta’s Nat. Magic, XIX. 386. The voice is changed in divers tunes, one note is sweet and pleasant, two, squele and jar.
1727. Somerville, Fables, XIV. i. Here tortur’d cats-gut squeals amain, Guittars in softer notes complain.
1824. Heber, Jrnl. (1828), I. ix. 239. Different musical instruments were strumming, thumping, squeeling and rattling.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, vii. 99. Then the biniou or bagpipe squeals and grunts.
3. slang. To turn informer; to inform or ‘peach’ on a person. (Cf. SQUEAK v. 2.)
1865. Slang Dict., 244. Squeal, to inform, peach. A north country variation of squeak.
1892. Montreal Gaz., 5 Nov., 8/2. This revelation led Gideon to ‘squeal’ and he to-day fortified his statement … by much documentary evidence.
1896. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 29 Dec., 2/1. His pal,… who is now serving time for counterfeiting, and who squealed on him.
4. trans. To utter or produce with a shrill, grating or squeaking sound. Also with out.
1675. Covel, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakluyt Soc.), 211. There are trumpets, which come in onely now and then to squeel out a loud note or two.
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xii. ‘Here, sir,’ squealed Timothy.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur., xii. (1894), 294. Pigs … squeal emphatic disapproval of their enforced journey.
1883. Ld. R. Gower, My Remin., I. vii. 130. The fiddie squealed the old dance music of the old-fashioned quadrille.
5. Quasi-adv. With a squeal.
1849. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 56. Squeal went the engine; we were off.
