[Aphetically f. ASQUINT adv. Cf. prec. and SQUINT a.]
1. intr. To have the axes of the eyes not coincident, so that one or both habitually look obliquely; to be affected with strabismus.
1611. Cotgr., Louscher, to squint, sken, or looke askew.
1677. Wycherley, Pl. Dealer, II. i. Can any one be call’d beautiful that squints?
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 5, ¶ 2. It is certainly a Mistake … to draw … Love, as a blind Boy; for his real Character is, a little Thief that squints.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, vi. § 15. Of those who squint, the far greater part have no distinct vision with one eye.
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 314. The reason why those persons who squint, generally turn the weak eye towards the nose.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, I. vii. My lady’s own waiting-woman squinted, and was marked with the smallpox.
1881. H. Smart, Race for Wife, ii. I heard one hideous old woman confide … that you squinted.
transf. 1829. Chapters Phys. Sci., 335. In this experiment the fingers may in a manner be said to squint.
b. Of the eyes.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, vi. One of his assistants had only one eye, the other squinted horribly.
1862. Borrow, Wild Wales, xxxiii. His eyes were grey and looked rather as it they squinted.
2. To look with the eyes differently directed; to glance obliquely or in other than the direct line of vision; also, to glance hastily or casually, to peep.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict., II. xxvii. He … ever, as he crept, would squint aside, Lest him, perhaps, some Furie had espide.
1640. Brome, Asparagus Gard., III. iv. 159. He gets a crick in his neck oft-times with squinting up at Windowes and Belconies.
1707. J. Stevens, trans. Quevedo’s Com. Wks. (1709), 89. He drew near,… squinting upon the bundle.
1727. Swift, Further Acc. E. Curll, Wks. 1751, III. I. 157. Some turning away their heads…; others squinting with a leer that shewed at once fear and indignation.
1802. Mrs. E. Parsons, Myst. Visit, IV. 38. Squinting at Sir William with no little disdain.
1849. Cupples, Green Hand, xi. (1856), 107. Well, we squints up the hatchway, and see’d a young midshipman a-standing with his back to us.
1893. Photogr. Ann., II. 41. Without having to squint at the ground glass with your nose nearly touching it.
fig. 1622. Hakewill, David’s Vow, iii. 103. Hee could not at once intend two such distant objects; hee might glance, or squint upon both: but directly fix his eyes upon both hee could not.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 106. This we do by the power we have over our ideas to overlook, or, as it were, squint upon some, and hold others in a steadier view.
b. fig. To have a private eye to something. Const. at or upon.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xxv. 233. Pity but his eyes were out that squints at his own ends in doing Gods work.
1692. Southerne, Fatal Marriage, I. i. That has a face of good nature, but it squints with both eyes upon your own interest.
1782. Cowper, To Rev. Wm. Bull, 12. Not meaning … His pleasure, or his good alone, But squinting partly at my own.
c. fig. To glance at, on or upon (a person or thing) with dislike or disapproval, or by means of some covert allusion, hint or suggestion.
(a) 1652. Benlowes, Theoph., X. xlix. 185. He hates Superiors,… And on his Fellows squints, that are in joynt Command.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 429. They will come to a bad Market too, in Times that squint on Ingenious Labours.
1706. Drake’s Secr. Mem. Earl of Leicester, Pref. [He] does not in the least squint upon the Earl as guilty of the fact.
(b) a. 1733. Gay, Fables, II. iv. In prudence, too, you think my rhymes Should never squint at courtiers’ crimes.
1742. Fielding, J. Andrews, III. x. I hope you have a better opinion of my taste than to apprehend that I squinted at yourself.
1779. Lovell, in J. Adams, Wks. (1854), IX. 481. R. H. Lee with H. Laurens are squinted at as two monsters … who pursue points in which the Southern States have no interest.
1894. Birrell, Ess., ix. 99. The dramatists he squinted at were worse than they had any need to be.
3. fig. To have a side or covert reference, implication, bearing or aim; to refer or bear indirectly; to incline or tend. Const. with toward(s, that (or this) way, or at.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuff, Wks. (Grosart), V. 243. There is a foule fault in the print escapt, that curstly squinteth and leereth that way.
1624. Mountagu, New Gagg, 58. What neede I produce authority of Fathers?… Name me but one that squinteth that way, ‘nedum’ that saith it positiuely.
1644. Bulwer, Chiron., 62. The Rubriques of the Romish Rites, which seeme a little to squint this way, prescribe three formes of Benediction.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., III. 54. There be some short Passages in the holy Fathers, that seem to squint towards some of the Articles of Popery.
1768. Woman of Honor, II. 54. Happened to drop something that squinted towards a reproach to his Lordship.
1895. Funk’s Stand. Dict., s.v., The document squints toward treason.
1898. Daily News, 26 Feb., 5/5. The President is prepared to veto any clap-trap measure which squints at war.
1902. J. F. Rusling, European Days & Ways, 342. A goodly Wesleyan chapel of red brick—not ambitious to be called a church yet, but squinting that way.
4. To move or branch off in an oblique direction.
1721. Wodrow, Hist. Suff. Ch. Scot. (1830), II. 30/2. Dalziel sends out a party of about fifty horse to squint along the edge of the hill, and attack their left wing.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 288. That the vein in the inferior stratum of limestone … squints 4 or five yards from the superior vein.
5. trans. To give a permanent or temporary cast to (the eye); to cause to look asquint or obliquely.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 22. The foule Flibbertigibbet … giues the Web and the Pin, squints the eye, and makes the Hare-lippe.
1637. Heywood, Pleas. Dial., xiii. Wks. 1874, VI. 226. Let him but use An unsway’d eye, not squinted with affections.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, xxxiii. Our friend … was now squinting his eyes inside out with anger.
fig. 1622. Bacon, Hen. VII. (1876), 166. Perkin … marched to Taunton; beginning already to squint one eye upon the crown, and another upon the sanctuary.
b. To cast or direct (a look, etc.) in a sidelong manner.
1631. Chapman, Cæsar & Pompey, IV. v. What wild looks Are squinted at me from men’s mere suspicions That I am wild myself.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., I. xv. On others’ ways they never squint a frown, Nor heed what haps in hamlet or in town.
6. a. To divert obliquely.
1789. J. Pilkington, Derbyshire, I. 58. In the language of the miners these veins are squinted 4 or 5 yards northwardly from their former direction, that is, they have departed so much from their perpendicular range.
b. To cross (a surface) obliquely.
1884. Q. Victoria, More Leaves, 97. We first went along the road and then on the heather ‘squinting’ the hill.
