Word.ws English Dictionary

squail

squail verb: to throw weighted sticks at small animals, usually cockerels, played as a game.

Verb

squail (third-person singular simple present squails, present participle squailing, simple past and past participle squailed)

  1. (historical, intransitive) To throw weighted sticks at small animals, usually cockerels, played as a game.
  2. To throw anything about awkwardly or irregularly.
    • December 28 1821, Robert Southey, letter VIII - Recollections of Corston Continued
      The boys were employed also to squail at the bannets

Noun

squail (plural squails)

  1. A disc or counter used in the game of squails.

Forms of squail

Verb
third-person singular presentsquails
present participlesquailing
past participlesquailed
pastsquailed
Noun
pluralsquails

Words that rhyme with squail

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about squail

What does squail mean?
Squail means to throw weighted sticks at small animals, usually cockerels, played as a game.
What part of speech is squail?
Squail can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of squail?
The past tense of squail is squailed.

Words near squail in the dictionary

  1. squadronmates
  2. squadrons
  3. squads
  4. squaffle
  5. squaffles
  6. squail
  7. squailed
  8. squailer
  9. squailers
  10. squailing
  11. squails

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: squail (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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