Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A young, newly hatched, or unfledged pigeon.
- n. A soft, thick cushion, as for a couch.
- n. A couch.
- adj. Young and undeveloped; newly hatched or unfledged: a squab chick.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To fall plump; strike heavily; flap; flop. They watched the street, and beheld ladies in … short cloaks with hoods squabbing behind (known as cardinals).
- To squeeze; knoek; beat.
- So as to strike with a crash; with a heavy fall; plump.
- Fat; short and stout; plump; bulky.
- Short; curt; abrupt.
- Unfledged, newly hatched, or not yet-having attained the full growth, as a dove or a pigeon.
- Hence Shy, as from extreme youth; coy.
- n. A young animal in its earliest period; a young beast or bird before the hair or feathers appear. Specifically, a young unfledged pigeon or dove. A young pigeon is properly a squab as long as it sits in the nest; as soon as it can utter its querulous cries for food it becomes a squealer or squeaker, and so continues as long as it is fed by the parents, which is generally until it is fully fledged; but it continues to be called
squab as marketable for its flesh. - n. A short, fat, flabby person: also used figuratively.
- n. A thickly stuffed cushion, especially one for a piece of furniture, as an upholstered chair or sofa, to which it may or may not be attached.
- n. A sofa in which there is no part of the frame visible, and which is stuffed and caught through with strong thread at regular intervals, but so as to be very soft.
- n. An ottoman.
- To stuff thickly and catch through with thread at regular intervals, as a cushion. A button or soft tuft is usually placed in the depressions to hide the stitches. Furniture upholstered in this manner is said to be squabbed.
Wiktionary
- n. A baby pigeon or dove.
- n. The meat of a squab (i.e. a young (domestic) pigeon or dove) used as food.
- n. A baby rook.
- n. A thick cushion, especially a flat one covering the seat of a chair or sofa.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Fat; thick; plump; bulky.
- adj. Unfledged; unfeathered.
- n. A nestling of a pigeon or other similar bird, esp. when very fat and not fully fledged.
- n. A person of a short, fat figure.
- n. A thickly stuffed cushion; especially, one used for the seat of a sofa, couch, or chair; also, a sofa.
- adv. With a heavy fall; plump.
- v. To fall plump; to strike at one dash, or with a heavy stroke.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a soft padded sofa
- n. flesh of a pigeon suitable for roasting or braising; flesh of a dove (young squab) may be broiled
- adj. short and fat
- n. an unfledged pigeon
Etymologies
- Probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Swedish dialectal squabb, fat flesh.
Examples
“I do not eat oysters, egg plant, or squab, which is pigeon.”
““I must admit, the food was very good, it was called squab, and Ben got very drunk and spilled a drink on me —””
“Constable MacDonald said the pigeons, called squab when sold as food, were valued between $3 and $10 each.”
“I've never been to England but I'm told a delicacy there is squab which is a very young pidgeon.”
“Seeking out the boy he persuaded him to give up the one "squab" whose wings had not yet been clipped, and this the ornithologist carried to the clump and deposited in the ruined nest.”
“But I had forgotten -- there was also a chair with a "squab" that apologized inadequately for the defects of its cane seat.”
“About 8pm the dinner bell rang, a summons to come and partake of a delicious repast of squab and all the trimmings.”
“At his restaurant, Craigie on Main, he approaches all his ingredients—cabbage and carrots, squab and sweetbreads—with equal care.”
The Wall Street Journal: Spiced Pumpkin, Eggplant and Rapini
“A sturgeon and sauerkraut tart, for example, is less than 2 inches around and has a frothy caviar cream; the squab and foie gras croustillant looks a little like a slice of a spring roll.”
The Wall Street Journal: Bringing the Old World Into the New
“The same with the pigeon - it's still a pigeon, but it's viewed differently when perceived as a squab.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘squab’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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AMAZING things
Things that are amazing.
Beaches, squab, Sprite, Photography, Sunsets, Nutella, Cell Phones, SFF's, Flowers, Weddings, Twitter, Summer and 18 more...
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Meats: For All the Carnivores out There
Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!
Just kidding. Kind of.yak, wood pigeon, wild turkey, wild boar, venison, veal, turtle, turkey, squirrel, squab, snail, rattlesnake and 51 more...

knitandpurl I knew about the bird but not about the cushions. As in:
"Mrs. Potterson nodded. "I had no idea that the Pyegraves were in such want of money. Why, he's the most prosperous draper and upholsterer in the Dell. Every squab upon which you sit was stuffed and sewn in his shop.""
Under the Harrow by Mark Dunn, p 32 Sep 1, 2011
reesetee I haven't either--but I kinda like the music. ;-) May 7, 2009
chained_bear Ah. Didn't even think to check good ol' WeirdNET. I've never heard this usage. Never been to New Zealand either. May 7, 2009
bilby WordNet 4th definition. I've heard it used like this by New Zealanders. May 7, 2009
chained_bear Some kind of carriage seat back?
"Quarry stuck his head out the window and shouted up to the driver, then pulled it in and relapsed back onto the grimy squabs with a sigh."
—Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Private Matter, 30
May 6, 2009
yarb Our host announced himself as an officer of the Holy Brotherhood, and his rib was a fat laughing squab of a woman, with outward good-nature, but with an eye to make the most of her commodities.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 5 ch. 1 Sep 19, 2008