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 1902. Lynch, High Stakes, xxiii. When he drew a fare and got well treated, he was not the man to squeal.

Squealer, subs. (common).—1. See quot., Squeaker, and Squeal.

1881. Century Mag., xxxiii. 100. When ready to leave the nest and face the world for itself, it [a young pigeon] is a squealer, or, in market parlance, a squab.

2. (Wellington School).—A small boy.

Squeemish, adj. (B. E.).—'Nice.'

Squeeze, subs. (common).—1. Silk.

1877. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. Me and another screwed a place at Stoke Newington, and we got some squeeze dresses, and two sealskin jackets, and some other things.

2. (common).—A crowd; a push (q.v.); crowding.

1862. Thackeray, Philip, xxvi. Four and twenty hours of squeeze in the diligence.

3. See Squeezer.

Verb. (B. E.).—'To gripe, or skrew hard.' Also (colloquial) = to extort, to coerce, to best (q.v.). As subs. = (1) a hard bargain; (2) Hobson's choice (q.v.); and (3) a rise (q.v.). Whence squeezable, squeezability, &c.

1670. Milton, Hist. Britain, vi. He [Canute] squeezed out of the English, though now his subjects, not his Enemies, 72, some say 82, thousand pound.

1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 378. You shall go snacks in all that we can squeeze out of the old fellow.

1852. Savage, Reuben Medlicott (1864), i. 9. You are too versatile and too squeezable you take impressions too readily.

1890. Peacocke, Descript. of the East, i. 171. The little officers oppress the people; the great officers squeeze them.

1892. Lowe, Bismarck, II. 230. The peace-of-mind-at-any-price disposition of that Cabinet had rendered it squeezable to any extent.

1900. Flynt, Tramps, 308. And then there is a celebration over having squeezed another Railroad company.

Squeeze-em-close, subs. phr. (venery).—Copulation: see Greens.

Squeezer (or Squeeze), subs. (old).—1. The neck (Grose and Vaux). Also (2) = the hangman's noose.

c. 1811. Maher, The Night Before Larry was Stretched. For Larry was always the lad, When a friend was condemned to the squeezer, He'd fence all the togs that he had, Just to help the poor boy to a sneezer.

c. 1866. Vance, Chickaleary Cove. The stock around my squeeze of a guiver colour see.

1887. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip. Until the squeezer nips your scrag, Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

3. (American).—In pl. = playing cards with the values marked in the top left hand margins. Also squeeze, verb., see quot.

1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 23. Gen. Schenck, like all great poker players, used to squeeze his hand, that is, arrange them so that only the indicators at the corners were visible.

Squeeze-wax, subs. phr. (old).—A surety (B. E. and Grose).

Squelch (or Squelsh), subs. (old).—A hard hit, a heavy fall; espec. one under something or somebody: also squelcher. As verb. = to crush, to squash (q.v.).

1624. Middleton, Game at Chess, v. 3. This fat bishop hath so overlaid me, So squelch'd and squeezed me.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, I. ii. 933. But Ralpho, who had now begun T'adventure resurrection From heavy squelch, and had got up.

d. 1687. Cotton, Works (1734), 242. And yet was not the squelch so ginger, But that I sprain'd my little finger.