a., adv. and sb. Forms: α. 5 squaymysch, 6 -ysh, -ish(e, 6–7 squaimish(e; 6 squeim-, squeymish, skeymishe; 6–7 squamish, north. dial. 8–9 swaimish, 9 swamish. β. 6–7 squemish(e, 7 squeemish (9 dial. skeemish), 6– squeamish; north. dial. 7, 9 sweamish, 9 sweemish. [var. of squaymes, squemes SQUEAMOUS a., by alteration of suffix.]
I. 1. Readily affected with nausea; easily turned sick or faint; physically unable to support or swallow anything disagreeable.
a. Of persons. † Also const. of.
c. 1450. Trevisa’s Barth. De P. R., V. xlv. (Bodl. MS.). And þerefor me schal not be squaymysch of vrine, for in many þinges it is profitable and leefe.
1584. Greene, Arbasto, Wks. (Grosart), III. 192. Art thou so squemish that thou canst not see wine but thou must surfet?
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., VI. 164. Purging Potions, taken by squeamish Persons,… cause a Shivering.
1702. Gay, Achilles, III. She is so squeamish and so frequently out of order.
1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 3, Wks. 1871, II. 367. For children and squeamish persons it may be made weaker.
1777. Cook, Voy., Pacific (1784), II. III. x. 186. We found that he was too squeamish to drink turtle’s blood.
fig. 1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. (1634), 486. Yet am I not so squeamish, that I can well enough digest a good Booke.
1740. Cibber, Apol. (1756), I. 11. As his patron knew the patient was squeamish, he was induced to sweeten the medicine to his taste.
transf. a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1686, III. 83. Thou hast a squeamish conscience, which cannot relish this, cannot digest that advantageous course of proceeding.
b. Of the stomach.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, ii. 152. It is very good for such as haue squamish & waterie stomacks.
a. 1707. Bp. Patrick, Comm. 2 Sam. xiii. 5. He would have him pretend that his stomach was so nice and squeamsh, that he would like nothing that his servants dressed.
1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., v. (1876), 318. Their squeamish stomachs sickened at the rough fare.
fig. 1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. State, V. ii. 363. The stomach of his Holinesse not being so squeamish, but that he would take a good almes from dirty hands.
1760. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, IV. xxxii. Nor do I value whose squeamish stomach takes offence at it.
1843. Lowell, Glance behind the Curtain, 85. But now the uneasy stomach of the time Turns squeamish at them both.
2. Slightly affected with nausea; sickish, qualmish.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 7 April. This day … the wind grew high, and … I began to be dizzy and squeamish.
1689. Muses Farew. Popery, 81. When Satan was squeamish, and long’d for a Dainty, The Pope Fricasseed him this New Four-and-twenty.
1756. Mrs. Calderwood, in Coltness Collect. (Maitland Club), 128. Then down I must go, and into bed as soon as possible, very very squeamish. I could not keep my feet in the cabin.
1817. J. Evans, Excurs. Windsor, etc. 485. Passed the North Foreland with a little swell, and most of the passengers were squeamish.
1887. Poor Nellie (1888), 411. You’re feeling squeamish, I see, so take my advice and have a brandy-and-soda.
† 3. Apt to produce qualms; = QUALMISH a. 3.
a. 1571. Jewel, Serm., i. Wks. (1611), 974. When they had manna in their mouths, they thought it a loathsome and a squeamish meat.
4. Characterized by a sickish feeling. rare.
1670. Covel, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakluyt Soc.), 102. Our Freshmen passengers were all in a miserable, squeamish, and puking condition.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., I. lxxvii. Fast by her side a listless maiden pin’d, With aching head, and squeamish heart-burnings.
II. † 5. Averse, unwilling or backward to do something. Obs.
1553. Respublica, I. iii. 278. I shall tell Respublica ye can beste governe: bee not ye than skeymishe to take in hand the stern.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. viii. (Arb.), 38. Let none other meaner person … be any whit squeimish to let it be publisht vnder their names, for reason serues it, and modestie doth not repugne.
6. Averse to freedom or familiarity of intercourse; distant, reserved, coy, cold.
Also, in mod. dial., modest, bashful, diffident, shy.
α. 1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, III. (1577), N vij. This woman ought not therefore … [to] be so squeimish and make wise to abhorre both the company & the talke.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Delicium, Delicias facere, to make strange and dally, because he would be intreated: to be squaymish.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. (1912), 118. Yet for countenance sake, he seemed very squeimish, in respect of the charge he had of the Princesse Pamela.
1788–. in northern dial. glossaries (in form swaimish or swamish).
β. 1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Desdaigneux, squemish, coye, disdainfull.
1584. Lyly, Sappho, I. iv. 7. Proud elfe! how squeamish he is become alreadie, vsing both disdaineful lookes, And imperious words.
1607. Dekker & Marston, Northw. Hoe, IV. D.’s Wks. 1873, III. 59. A comely country mayd, not squeamish nor afraid, To let Gentlemen touch.
c. 1665. Roxb. Ball. (1886), VI. 256. Virgins, take my advice, be not disdainful; Neither be coy and nice, squemish nor scornful.
1710. Palmer, Proverbs, 115. A woman of virtue keeps a guard upon her eye, and yet don’t affect to look soure, squeamish, and suspicious.
transf. 1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, C j b. As for Pallas, she is dainty, but not squemish, hard to be found, but easy to be intreated.
Comb. 1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. i. (1894), 166. Fair and soft, as squemish-honest as she seems,… conclude not rashly an inviolable chastitie to be on your Mistresse.
† b. Const. of: Averse to being free or generous with (something). Obs.
1566. Painter, Pal. Pleas., I. (1569), 195. The more she proved the King inflamed with her love, the more squeymish she was of her beautie.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 37. You haue shewed your selfe … not squemish or deintie of your singular beneuolence.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, V. i. Petro. I think ’twere well you would see her. Row. If you please, Sir; I am not squeamish of my visitation.
† c. Of actions, etc.: Characterized by coldness or coyness, Obs.
1577. Stanyhurst, Descr. Irel., Ep. Ded., in Holinshed. I was by them weied not to beare my selfe coy, by giuing my entier friends in so reasonable a request a squemish repulse.
1600. J. Lane, Tom Tel-troth (1876), 119. Some gogle with the eyes, some squint-eyd looke, Some at their fellowes, squemish sheepes-eyes cast.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, I. xx. (1632), 42. Their wanton, squeamish, quarellous countenances, which setting us a fire, extinguish us.
7. Readily offended by anything approaching immodesty or indecency; easily shocked; prudish.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), 55. Because the sight shoulde not abash her shamefast maydens, nether loth her squaymysh sight.
1677. W. Hughes, Man of Sin, II. v. 94. If the good Man blush’d … he may be pardon’d for this once, being not so squeamish often.
1742. Fielding, J. Andrews, I. xii. This the maid readily promised to perform,… being … not so squeamish as the lady.
1842. Lover, Handy Andy, xvi. ‘I’m not squeamish, sir,’ said Miss Augusta; ‘but it’s dreadful to be shut up with a man who has no clothes on him.’
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks., I. 217. As to the nudities,… they might well have startled a not very squeamish eye.
1892. Baring-Gould, Strange Survivals, x. 220. It is made up of a collection of riddles more or less good, some coarse, and some profane; but the age was not squeamish.
† b. Sensitive; shrinking from contact with anything rude or rough. Obs.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 61. Sulphureous Matters that compose the Flowers … are soon devour’d by the open Air, which destroys those frail and squeamish Beauties.
1782. Cowper, Poet, Oyster & Sensit. Pl., 55. And, as for you, my Lady Squeamish, Who reckon ev’ry touch a blemish.
1785. Burke, Sp. Nabob of Arcot’s Debts, Wks. I. 345. The person so squeamish, so timid, so trembling lest the winds of heaven should visit too roughly.
8. Sensitively or excessively fastidious, scrupulous, particular, or punctilious, with regard to standards of action or belief.
1581. T. Newton, Seneca’s Trag., Ded. And whereas it is by some squeymish Areopagites surmyzed that the reading of these Tragedies … cannot be digested without great danger [etc.].
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., II. i. High honour’d blood’s too squemish to assent, And lend a hand to an ignoble act.
1676. W. Allen, Addr. Non-Conform., 135. When they are nice, curious, and squeamish about undetermined circumstances in forms of administration.
c. 1690. Ld. Delamer, Disc. Incouragers of Popery, Wks. (1694), 93. Let then the high Church be more charitable, and the Dissenters less stiff and sweamish.
1724. Welton, Chr. Faith & Pract., 70. They were so squeamish upon the literal, and so loose and moderate in the moral sense.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 272. Another, who had not the same squeamish disposition, might have found enjoyments enow under general censure … to make life desirable.
1829. A. Cunningham, Brit. Painters, i. 41. If Laud had not doated on trifles, and the Presbyterians had been squeamish about them.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. III. 274. Where enthusiasts are ready … to be destroyed for trifles magnified into importance by a squeamish conscience.
1881. Scribner’s Mag., XXII. May, 144/2. Some of the early American statesmen, doubtless, were not any too squeamish in their political maneuverings.
Comb. 1581. Studley, Seneca’s Agamemnon, A iij. Although as squemishe hearted men those priests in bedlem rage.
b. With preps., as about, as to, at, of.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 417. But I will not be so squemish about these trifles.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Ps. xx. Why should we be squamish at newe wordes or phrases in the scripture which are necessarie.
a. 1660. Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.), I. 276. Neuer squemishe of any your proceedings.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, III. i. § 3. Those whose minds are so coy and squeamish as to any thing of Divine revelation.
1865. Bright, Sp., Canada, 67. They are not so squeamish as to what they say about us.
1872. E. Yates, Castaway, II. vii. I don’t pretend … to be squeamish about such matters.
c. Marked or characterized by fastidiousness or scrupulousness.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 158. All resteth vpon a case of conscience, as nice and squeamish a scruple [etc.].
a. 1658. Cleveland, Wks. (1687), 99. Your pen is coy, and you ware the Holy Ground and Holy Coyn with a squeamish Pretention.
1776. Cowper, Lett., Wks. 1837, XV. 36. You perceive I have not made a squeamish use of your obliging offer.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 10. In a bachelor’s house … there is no lady to stand upon squeamish points about lodging gentlemen in old holes and corners.
1884. Browning, Ferishtah (1885), 73. So, with thy squeamish scruple.
9. Fastidious or dainty with respect to what one handles, uses, or comes in contact with.
1608. Topsell, Serpents, 789. If we would … not be so squeamish as to refuse those wholesome medicines which are easie to be had.
1697. Vanbrugh, Prov. Wife, III. i. I’ll warrant it’s some squeamish minx as my wife, that’s grown so dainty of late, she finds fault even with a dirty shirt.
1746. Francis, trans. Hor., Sat., II. vi. 176. If delicacies could invite My squeamish courtier’s appetite, Who turn’d his nose at every dish.
1800. Miss Edgeworth, Belinda, xxii. I have heard … that the passion of love, which can endure caprice, vice, [etc.] is notwithstanding so squeamish as to be instantaneously disgusted by the perception of folly in the object beloved.
1860. W. H. G. Kingston, Pirate Medit., I. 12. He’s the fellow to make your kid-glove wearing gentlemen dip their hands in the tar-bucket … if he sees they are in any way squeamish about it.
1871. L. Stephen, Playgr. Eur. (1894), ix. 206. Our nerves … are unduly delicate, and our tastes too squeamish.
absol. 1828. (title) The Adventures of Doctor Comicus;… a Comic Satirical Poem, for the Squeamish and the Queer.
† 10. a. Having aversion or antipathy at or towards something. Obs.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 249 b. Beyng squeymish at Luthers speache.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 360. Squemish towards the present, and longing for Innovation.
† b. To make squeamish, to hesitate or shrink; to show dislike. Obs.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VII. xliii. § 4. 355. This great Oracle … made it not squemish to giue them this aduice.
a. 1617. Bayne, Lect. (1634), 197. If he [God] delight in us, what matter if the world make squemish of us?
