squab

Unknown. Possibly related to dialectal Swedish skvabb (“fatty, flabby”). First attested in the 17th century.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɒb/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈskwɑb/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒb

squab (countable and uncountable, plural squabs)

1. (countable, sometimes attributive) A fledgling (young) bird.
   2. A young dove or pigeon.

      Synonyms: piper, squeaker

   3. A young chicken.

      Synonym: chick

   4. A young rook.
3. (uncountable) The meat of young dove or pigeon, typically under four weeks old, used as food.
   • 2022, Jennifer Egan, The Candy House, Corsair, page 207:

     Squab may be consumed by ripping the bird apart with your hands and sucking the meat from the bones.

4. (countable) A thick cushion, especially a flat one covering the seat of a chair or sofa.
   • a. 1744, Alexander Pope (imitating Earl of Dorset), Artemisia, 1795, Robert Anderson (editor), A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, page 86,

     On her large ſquab you find her ſpread, / Like a fat corpſe upon a bed, / That lies and ſtinks in ſtate.

   • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Retribution”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 591:

     [H]erds of shabby vampires, Jew and Christian, over-run the house, [...] punching the squabs of chairs and sofas with their dirty fists, touzling the feather-beds, opening and shutting all the drawers, balancing the silver spoons and forks, looking into the very threads of the drapery and linen, and disparaging everything.

   • 1957 August, “New Multiple-Unit Stock for Hastings and Watford Services”, in Railway Magazine, page 532:

     Another feature new to British Railways is the provision of two-position adjustable seats in the first class compartments. In this design, the seat squab can be pulled out some six inches, the seat back being attached to the seat to give a less upright sitting position.

5. (countable) A person of a short, fat figure.
   • a. 1800, William Cowper, “The Progress of Error”, in Poems of William Cowper, Esq, published 1824, page 28:

     Gorgonius sits abdominous and wan, / Like a fat squab upon a Chinese fan:

squab (third-person singular simple present squabs, present participle squabbing, simple past and past participle squabbed)

1. (obsolete) To fall plump; to strike at one dash, or with a heavy stroke.
2. (transitive) To furnish with squabs, or cushions.
3. (transitive) To stuff thickly and sew through, the stitches being concealed by buttons, etc.

squab (comparative more squab, superlative most squab)

1. Fat; thick; plump; bulky.
   • 1712, Thomas Betterton, The Miller of Trompington:

     Nor the squab daughter nor the wife were nice.

   • 1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 93:

     So on his Nightmare through the evening fog / Flits the squab fiend o'er fen, and lake, and bog […] .

2. Unfledged; unfeathered.
   • 1836, Richard King, Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Ocean:

     broken limbs of trees, eggs, and young squab pigeons precipitated from above

3. Clumsy.
4. Curt; abrupt.
5. Shy; coy.

squab (not comparable)

1. (slang) With a heavy fall; plump.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     The eagle took the tortoise up into the air, and dropped him down, squab, upon a rock.

• “squab”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “squab”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• quabs