[f. SQUINT a. or v.]
1. A permanent tendency in the eye to look obliquely or askant; defective coincidence of the optic axes; strabismus.
a. 1652. Brome, Queenes Exch., II. i. The dulnesse of the Eye, which here shews deadly But for a little squint it has.
1712–3. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 8 Feb. He has favoured her squint admirably; and you know I love a cast in the eye.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, vi. § 15. In the retina of those who have an involuntary squint. Ibid. In those who have no squint.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxiii. A stout bandy-legged fellow, with … a most portentous squint of the left eye.
1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots, Jan. Nurse says that, when he is older, he will get rid of his squint.
1879. Harlan, Eyesight, ii. 30. The operation for squint, or ‘cross eye,’ consists in weakening the overacting muscle by cutting it.
fig. 1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. A disingenious Squint, that looks with an evil eye upon every Thing.
1875. Galaxy, April, 560/2. Still, sometimes we manage to see things without a party squint, especially after election.
b. Path. With distinguishing terms.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 396/2. Inward Squint, or Strabismus convergens. Ibid. Outward Squint, or Strabismus divergens.
1867. Chambers’s Encycl., IX. 69/1. The squint is said to be convergent when the eye or eyes are directed towards the nose, and divergent when they are directed towards the temple, and is termed single or double according as one eye or both are displaced.
1872. T. Bryant, Man. Pract. Surg. (1884), I. 409. Ordinary convergent or ‘concomitant’ squint has to be distinguished from … ‘paralytic’ squint.
1884. Encycl. Brit., XVII. 786/1. In periodic squint glasses to correct the hypermetropia ought to be given.
1887. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 23 April, 874/2. He had a well-marked external squint of the left eye. Ibid. There was a slight internal squint.
c. attrib. in squint-scissors (used in operating for strabismus).
1879. St. George’s Hosp. Rep., IX. 492. The mass was … so tough as to resist the insertion of the point of an ordinary pair of squint-scissors.
2. A directing of the eyes obliquely; a sidelong look or glance; a hasty or casual look; a peep.
1673. [R. Leigh], Transp. Reh., 14. Lacys best Grimaces were never so Artificial as the Squints of a Humiliation Saint.
1736. Swift, Propos. Regul. Quadrille, Wks. 1846, II. 131. To give damages for all opprobrious language, and especially for all hints, squints, innuendoes, leers, and shrugs.
1824. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), I. 245. He hopes to have another squint at me before I go.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xxxii. I have been down the road taking a squint at the scene of action.
1894. G. M. Fenn, In Alpine Valley, I. 223. Better get back to him as soon as you’ve had your squint round.
3. An inclination or tendency towards some particular object; a drift or leaning; a covert aim.
1736. West, Lett., in Gray’s Poems (1775), 15. The prophecy has certainly a squint that way.
1891. Eggleston, Faith Doctor, iv. 43. He lost interest even in the dinner parties, with a business squint, that he had been so fond of giving.
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict., s.v., A squint towards radicalism.
4. An oblique or perverse bent or tendency.
1774. Eliz. Carter, Lett., 30 May (1809), IV. 112. Wit is a squint of the understanding which is mighty apt to set things in a wrong place.
1840. Hare, Vict. Faith (1847), 45. This warping bent, this squint of our understandings.
5. Arch. HAGIOSCOPE.
1839. [see HAGIOSCOPE].
1850. Parker, Gloss. Archit. (ed. 5), I. 442. There seems to be no good or ancient authority for the name of squint applied to these openings, but it has been long in use.
1879. J. C. Cox, Ch. of Derbysh., IV. 21. At the east end of the south aisle is a genuine squint.
attrib. 1881. S. R. Macphail, Relig. House of Pluscardyn, xix. 165. The remains of another sumbry, as we suppose, at the squint window opening into the Lady’s Chapel.
b. transf. (See quot.)
1891. Science-Gossip, XXVII. 39. We placed ourselves at squints, or peeping-holes, formed by thrusting short sticks through the reed fence.
