squib
IPA: skwˈɪb
noun
- (military) A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode.
- A similar device used to ignite an explosive or launch a rocket, etc.
- (mining) A kind of slow match or safety fuse.
- (US) Any small firecracker sold to the general public, usually in special clusters designed to explode in series after a single master fuse is lit.
- (firearms) A malfunction in which the fired projectile does not have enough force behind it to exit the barrel, and thus becomes stuck.
- (automotive) The heating element used to set off the sodium azide pellets in a vehicle's airbag.
- (film, theater) In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.
- (dated) A short piece of witty writing; a lampoon.
- (dated) A writer of lampoons.
- (law) In a legal casebook, a short summary of a legal action placed between more extensively quoted cases.
- (linguistics) A short article, often published in journals, that introduces theoretically problematic empirical data or discusses an overlooked theoretical problem. In contrast to a typical article, a squib need not answer the questions that it poses.
- (archaic except in idioms) An unimportant, paltry, or mean-spirited person.
- (graphic design) A sketched concept or visual solution, usually very quick and not too detailed.
verb
- To make a sound like a small explosion.
- (colloquial, dated, transitive, intransitive) To throw squibs; to utter sarcastic or severe reflections; to contend in petty dispute.
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Examples of "squib" in Sentences
- Origin of the phrase damp squib .
- I thought a squib was the tip of a pen.
- Newsweek ran a squib on the controversy.
- The throwing the squib to Yates's stall.
- They have a lighting designer called 'squib'.
- If it is not, the squib has a supreme importance.
- Here's a squib from the publisher's page about the book.
- Taped to the squib is a small plastic bag of fake blood.
- The Lieberman squib is a biased rendering of that debate.
- This squib attempts to be a small step in this direction.
- I think the pictures I added of squibs and the crimp should stay though.
- In the context of the story, the Kewletts want to exterminate all the Squibs.
- I agree the squib was the wrong call, but to play devil's advocate, Gerald Jones had made a bunch of big returns for Tennessee that night.
- No 800-word opinion squib is going to substitute for several years of intensive training in a subject; nuance is inevitably going to get lost.
- I also wrote a thousand word squib/essay about Sant Jordi, and a noi (Catlaan for "boy") I met my first year in Spain, that was supposed to be a max of 500 words.
- While setting up a discussion, John McLaughlin quoted Naomi Klein's "squib" on a new Obama book titled The Mendacity of Hope, by Roger D. Hodge, the former editor-in-chief of Harper's magazine:
- If last week's little demonstration by Iran -- calling for the elimination of Israel -- didn't convince you that the people who run that country are just plain nuts, perhaps this little squib from the National Post will help.
- It was madness to cover public buildings with open oil lamps and leave them to be looked after by natives -- this huge Taj hotel, dry as tinder outside, a complexity of dry wooden jalousies and balconies, was covered with these lights and floating flags -- how it didn't go off like a squib was a miracle.