[Of doubtful origin.]
1. A slit or narrow opening in a building. Cf. SQUINT sb. 5.
1602–3. in Hartland Gloss. (1891), 73. Item pd to Hughe the glasier for glasse for the litle Squinches of the Tower, xd.
1848. Continental Ecclesiology, 95. Some open squinches looking into the synagogue, in three stages, are from the women’s galleries.
1879. Temple Bar, Aug., 470. Many of these little churches … are of very massive construction, with a squinch or hagioscope practised in the thickness of the wall.
2. dial. A crevice between floor-boards or the like; a crack.
1837–. in Devonshire glossaries, etc.
