Also 7 squibb(e. [f. the sb.]
I. intr. 1. To use smart or sarcastic language; to utter, write or publish a squib or squibs. Freq. const. against, at, on, upon.
1579–80. G. Harvey, Lett., Wks. (Grosart), I. 80. For squibbing and declayming against many fruitlesse Artes, and Craftes.
1607. Hieron, Defence, I. 224. Why is M, B, squibbed at, who observeth that course?
1682. Bunyan, Greatness Soul, Wks. 1855, I. 138. It is a sport now to taunt and squib and deride at other men’s virtues.
1718. Entertainer, No. 40. 276. He has a deal of reason to be perpetually a squibbing upon the Romish Clergy.
1797. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Ode Sir J. Banks, Wks. 1812, III. 454. What a joke! ye certainly are squibbing.
1825. New Monthly Mag., XVI. 312. Now artists and actors the bardling engage To squib in the journals, and write for the stage.
1852. W. Jerdan, Autobiog., II. iii. 26. I argued, and fought, and squibbed, and abused, with the hottest of my contemporaries.
2. a. To let off squibs; to go on doing this.
In the quot. a stage-direction for thunder.
1691. J. Wilson, Belphegor, I. i. I’d make him know, I fill my Orb my self….—Squib on—and say [etc.].
b. To fire a gun, etc.; to shoot. Also fig.
1831. Lincoln Herald, 22 July, 4/4. To go squibbing about with their guns, and putting in jeopardy the lives of his majesty’s subjects.
1839. G. W. M. Reynolds, Pickw. Abroad, xxvi. Song, And if the swells resist our ‘Stand!’ We’ll squib without a joke.
3. To move about like a squib.
1760–2. Goldsm., Cit. World, lxxxviii. A battered unmarried beau, who squibs about from place to place.
1886. S. W. Linc. Gloss., 140. Mary Ann does squib about; she nips about when she is playing.
4. To make a report like that of a squib.
1886. Kipling, Departm. Ditties, etc. (1899), 83. A Snider squibbed in the jungle.
II. trans. 5. a. To cast or throw forth, off, out (a remark, quip, etc.) after the manner of a squib.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, Wks. (Grosart), III. 184. Anie Frezeland, Dutch, or Almain scribe … that hath but squibd foorth a Latin Puerilis in Print.
1602. Dekker, Satirom., Wks. 1873, I. 235. I could make thine eares burne now that thou wouldst never squib out any new Salt-peter jestes against honest Tucca.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., cccxli. The Arch-Bishop Still Flirting Divinitie against the Throne,… Squibs the Worne moralls, Hope and Patience.
1853. W. Jerdan, Autobiog., IV. xiii. 237. Hook squibbed off a few pleasantries.
b. To let off (a squib); to fire (a gun, etc.), esp. with the priming or powder only; † to shoot (an arrow).
1603. Sir C. Heydon, Jud. Astrol., ii. 22. A child squibbes his arrows at random into the aire.
1811. Spirit Public Jrnls., XVI. 5. Squibbed our guns over the bridge.
1829. W. H. Maxwell, Stories Waterloo, F. Kennedy, 223. The customary bows were formally interchanged between the respective belligerents,… pistols squibbed, loaded, and delivered to the principals.
1892. B. Hinton, Lord’s Return, 194. I shall have all the squibs squibbed if I don’t go.
† c. fig. To throw in as a squib. Obs.–1
1655. Fuller, Hist. Camb., 14. When Matthew Parker … reports, how many deserting Oxford removed to Cambridge, he [Twine] squibs in this parenthesis.
6. To assail or attack (a person) with squibs or witty sarcasm; to lampoon or satirize smartly.
1631. May, trans. Barclay’s Mirr. Minds, II. 20. They … are squibbed with iests and taunts, which like little darts, are in daily discourse throwne against them.
1758. J. Adams, Diary, 29 Dec., Wks. 1850, II. 53. Lambert will laugh, no doubt, and will tell the story to every man he sees, and will squib me about it whenever he sees me.
1830. Examiner, 3 Jan., 2/1. He [Canning] suffered himself to be squibbed to death.
1868. Green, Lett. (1901), II. 202. The mendicant parson, whom I am so fond of squibbing.
1880. Disraeli, Endym., xxxiii. There is a cabinet minister;… I have been squibbing him for these two years.
7. To spatter with a squib or squirt.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. II. Nurs. Rem., vi. Billy Hawkins … with his pewter squirt Squibb’d my pantaloons and stockings Till they were all over dirt.
