squib

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“
It was madness to cover public buildings with open oil lamps and leave them to be looked after by natives--this huge Taj hotel, dry as tinder outside, a complexity of dry wooden jalousies and balconies, was covered with these lights and floating flags--how it didn't go off like a squib was a miracle.

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Definitions (21)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun A small firecracker.
  2. noun A broken firecracker that burns but does not explode.
  3. noun A brief satirical or witty writing or speech, such as a lampoon.
4 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (11)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The last issue has Benny Shanon's short squib, which is the source for the Hey, wait a minute!
  • The best location for a squib is in the center of the low explosive filler. —  20-ImprovisedInitiators
  • Little more than a brief squib, it outlined the brutal shotgun-slaying of a farmer, his wife, and their two children. —  normblog
  • US News & World Report squib (last item; scroll down) about how dozens of White House staffers TiVo —  Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch
  • The combinations can light a fire or fizzle like a damp squib - either way the show is unmissable. —  Taipei Times
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This word has been looked up 125 times.

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

squib:   squibs
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Probably imitative.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. A variant of *squip, from Middle English squippen, a variant of swip (Middle English swippen), move swiftly, sweep, dash: see swip, swipe.
  2. from squib, v.
 

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/skwɪb/
by American Heritage

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