subs. phr. (old).A squinting man or woman: also SQUIN-EYES, SQUINT-A-PIPES, and SQUINT-A-FUEGO. As adj. = squinting; TO SQUINNY (or SQUIN) = to squint; and (American) to laugh, wink, or smile.
1602. J. COOKE, How a Man may Choose a Good Wife from a Bad, ii. 3.
Gold can make limping Vulcan walke upright, | |
Make SQUINT EIES looke straight, a crabbed face look smooth. |
1605. SHAKESPEARE, King Lear, iv. 6. Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou SQUINY at me?
1609. ARMIN, The Italian Taylor and his Boy.
As doctors in their deepest doubts, | |
Stroke up their foreheads hie; | |
Or wen amazde, their sorrow flouts, | |
By SQUEAMING with the eye. |
1692. DRYDEN, Persius, v. 271.
The timbrel, and the SQUINTIFEGO maid | |
Of Isis, awe thee. |
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. SQUINT-A-PIPES said to be born in the middle of the week, and looking both ways for Sunday; or born in a hackney coach, and looking out of both windows; fit for a cook, one eye in the pot, and the other up the chimney; looking nine ways at once.