Word.ws English Dictionary

squib

/skwɪb/

squib noun: a small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode.

Noun

squib (plural squibs)

  1. A small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode.
    • English Navy squibs set fire to two dozen enemy ships in a Dutch harbor during the 16th-century battle against the Spanish Armada.
    • The making and selling of fireworks and squibs, or throwing them about on any street, is […] punishable by fine.1769, William Blackstone, “Of Offences Against the Public Health and the Public Police or Economy”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book IV (Of Public Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […]...
  2. A similar device used to ignite an explosive or launch a rocket, etc.
  3. A kind of slow match or safety fuse.
  4. (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.
  5. A malfunction in which the fired projectile does not have enough force behind it to exit the barrel, and thus becomes stuck.
  6. The heating element used to set off the sodium azide pellets in a vehicle's airbag.
  7. In special effects, a small explosive used to replicate a bullet hitting a surface or a gunshot wound on an actor.
  8. (dated) A short piece of witty writing; a lampoon.
    • Ye nevvs-paper vvitlings! ye pert ſcribbling folks! / VVho copied his ſquibs, and re-echoed his jokes, […]1774, [Oliver] Goldsmith, “Postscript”, in Retaliation: A Poem. […], 5th edition, London: […] G[eorge] Kearsly, […], →OCLC, page 21
    • Of the dozen or so surviving articles, squibs, and letters to the editor, the most remarkable appeared in the Whip and Satirist’s February 12, 1842, issue, and disclosed the existence of a cabal of gay men in New York's otherwise wholesome nightscape of brothels and riots.2005, Mark Caldwell, New York Night, page 133
  9. (dated) A writer of lampoons.
    • November 1, 1709, Richard Steele, The Tatler
      The squibs are those who in the common phrase of the world are called libellers, lampooners, and pamphleteers.
  10. In a legal casebook, a short summary of a legal action placed between more extensively quoted cases.
  11. 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.
    • In this squib I will prove that the number of possible metrical parsings into feet under these assumptions […]2008, William J. Idsardi, Combinatorics for Metrical Feet, in Biolinguistics Vol 2, No 2
  12. (archaic except in idioms) An unimportant, paltry, or mean-spirited person.
    • Its a hard case when men of good deserving / must either driven be perforce to sterving / or asked for their pas by everie squib.1591, Edmund Spenser, Mother Hubberds Tale ll. 369-371
  13. A sketched concept or visual solution, usually very quick and not too detailed.
  14. (Australia) A coward or wimp.
    • I'm putting my foot down, Janelle. We're raising a nation of squibs!2021, Joe Brumm, “Pass the Parcel”, in Bluey, season 3, episode 13, spoken by Lucky's Dad (Brad Elliot)

Verb

squib (third-person singular simple present squibs, present participle squibbing, simple past and past participle squibbed)

  1. To make a sound like a small explosion.
    • A Snider squibbed in the jungle.
  2. (ambitransitive, colloquial, dated) To throw squibs; to utter sarcastic or severe reflections; to contend in petty dispute.
    • to squib a little debate
  3. (Australia) To dodge something difficult, to bottle.
    • He squibbed the opportunity to push the claim that Kyoto should remain the flagship for international action - because deep down those on the other side know that the world has moved on beyond Kyoto.2007 September 11, Australia. Parliament. House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: House of Representatives

squib meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Kannada and Punjabi

squib in Urdu

چھچھوندر

squib in Bengali

ছোট আতশবাজি, ব্যঙ্গাত্মক লেখা

squib in Kannada

ಕೆಣಕುಮಾತು

squib in Punjabi

small firework
ਚਕਚੂੰਧਰ cakcūndhar

Examples of squib in a sentence

  • It sounds very token, another damp squib which will probably end up benefiting more bureaucrats than artists or scientists.
  • But there was also a generous distribution of squibs, crackers, backarappers, sparklers, torches, dwarf-candles, elf-fountains, goblin-barkers and thunder-claps.
  • Thayer’s squib, we would report that Mr.

All 10 example sentences with squib

Forms of squib

Noun
pluralsquibs
Verb
third-person singular presentsquibs
present participlesquibbing
past participlesquibbed
pastsquibbed

Origin of squib

Possibly imitative of a small explosion.

Words formed from squib

Phrases with squib

Words that rhyme with squib

11 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about squib

What does squib mean?
Squib means a small firework that is intended to spew sparks rather than explode.
What is squib in Urdu?
Squib in Urdu is چھچھوندر. See Squib meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is squib?
Squib can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce squib?
Squib is pronounced /skwɪb/.
What is the plural of squib?
The plural of squib is squibs.

Words near squib in the dictionary

  1. Squenix
  2. squeteague
  3. squeteagues
  4. squewiff
  5. squi
  6. squib
  7. squib kick
  8. squib kicks
  9. Squibb
  10. squibbed
  11. squibber

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: squib (page history and authors); squib (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); squib (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); squib (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-squib.ogg.

Cite this entry: “squib.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/squib. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.