Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To give forth a short, shrill cry or sound.
  • intransitive verb Slang To turn informer.
  • intransitive verb To utter in a thin, shrill voice.
  • noun A short shrill cry or sound, such as that made by a mouse or a rusty hinge.
  • noun An escape.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To utter a short, sharp, shrill cry, as a pig or a rat; make a sharp noise, as a pipe or fife, a wheel or hinge that needs oiling, or the sole of a boot.
  • To break silence or secrecy; speak out; turn informer; “squeal”; peach.
  • To shirk an obligation, as the payment of a debt.
  • To utter with a squeak, or in a squeaking tone.
  • noun A short, sharp, shrill cry, such as that uttered by pigs or mice, or made by a wheel or the hinge of a door when dry.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A sharp, shrill, disagreeable sound suddenly uttered, either of the human voice or of any animal or instrument, such as is made by carriage wheels when dry, by the soles of leather shoes, or by a pipe or reed.
  • intransitive verb To utter a sharp, shrill cry, usually of short duration; to cry with an acute tone, as an animal; or, to make a sharp, disagreeable noise, as a pipe or quill, a wagon wheel, a door; to creak.
  • intransitive verb colloq. To break silence or secrecy for fear of pain or punishment; to speak; to confess.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A short, high-pitched sound, as of two objects rubbing together, or the calls of small animals.
  • noun games A card game similar to group solitaire.
  • verb intransitive To emit a short, high-pitched sound.
  • verb intransitive, slang To inform, to squeal.
  • verb transitive To speak or sound in a high-pitched manner.
  • verb intransitive, games To empty the pile of 13 cards a player deals to themself in the card game of the same name.
  • verb intransitive, informal To win or progress by a narrow margin.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun something achieved (or escaped) by a narrow margin
  • verb make a high-pitched, screeching noise
  • noun a short high-pitched noise

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English squeken, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse skvakka, to croak.]

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Examples

  • That awful _squeak, squeak, squeak_ continues day and night.

    Ruth Fielding At College or The Missing Examination Papers Alice B. Emerson

  • With all this talk about getting rid of the current Stop & Search form I still haven’t heard a squeak from the usual suspects in reply and in defence of the Macpherson led initiative.

    Stop and Account replaced by more new forms. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2008

  • Video is one of the killer apps of the rich internet applications, even if they every now and again squeak that this isn’t supposed to be that, that it’s supposed to be a cross platform development environment – people will want to watch youtube on their phones, too.

    FX Script. : #comments 2007

  • The Bursar's company, although quite harmless, had a habit of making one's brain squeak.

    Idiocy as Disease Richard Nokes 2006

  • The plane is decked out with a comfy bed with springs that do not squeak, which is more more comfortable than fumbling around in a cubicle the size of a broom cupboard.

    Mile High Club 2007

  • It's best to use the OLPC etoys image of etoys squeak, which is now superior to the version on the squeakland site: install instructions here This tutorial matches the OLPC image version of etoys, it would be hard to follow all the detail of it if using the Squeakland version.

    making pong in etoys Bill Kerr 2007

  • And your sister-in-law, I think all she knows of you is the squeak, that is what I was saying before.

    Heartfire Card, Orson Scott 1998

  • I. Day, tall, and thin, and gaunt, with a hatchet face, who looked as if a squeak was his vocal limit, had

    Social life in old New Orleans : being recollections of my girlhood, 1912

  • And there are even languages/environments meant to be easy to use and learn, such as squeak, which coincidentally ships with the OLPC program – since one of the main OLPC guys is one of the main squeak guys.

    Might I Suggest Squeak? « Tai-Chi Policy 2010

  • Fresh curds are usually buttery and mildly sour in flavor, and springy in texture with a tell-tale "squeak" when you bite into them.

    Say Cheese: The curds of summer 2010

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