Also squiny. [Cf. SQUIN a.]
1. intr. To squint, look askance; to peer with partly closed eyes. Also const. at or to.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 140. I remember thine eyes well enough: dost thou squiny at me?
1608. Armin, Nest of Ninnies (1812), 6. The World, queasie stomackt,… squinies at this, and lookes as one scorning.
1783. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 4 Jan. Mr. P—, at last, spied me out, and came squinying up to me.
1838. Miss Maitland, Lett. fr. Madras (1843), 201. Squinnying cunningly at me the whole time, to see in I look as if I believe them.
1854. Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Squiny, to look askance.
2. trans. To direct (the eyes) obliquely; to close up partly in a short-sighted manner.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, 322. Child, do not squinny your eyes so.
1890. W. A. Wallace, Only a Sister? 35. So he ‘squinnied’ up his eyes, and pulled his huge moustaches.
