▪ I. ˈsquitter, n. Now dial. and colloq.
[f. the vb. Cf. skitter n.1]
1. Diarrhœa. Usually in pl. Cf. skitter n.1 1.
| 1664 Cotton Scarron. i. (1715) 7 It Bounces, Foams, and Froths and Flitters, As if 'twere troubled with the Squitters. 1691 Mrs. D'Anvers Academia 45 Then, as if troubled with the Squitters, Away they feque it to St. Peters. 1823 E. Moor Suffolk Words 357 Skutta, Skitta, Squitter, these words are pretty nearly the same; and imply a lashness or diarrhœa, especially in a horse or cow. 1841– in midland and southern dial. glossaries (in form squitters). 1958 P. Scott Mark of Warrior ii. 131 ‘Aren't you sleeping?’ ‘I get the squitters pretty regularly.’ 1976 A. Price War Game 13, I reckon squitters was queen [of the battlefield]. More of the poor bastards crapped themselves to death than killed each other. 1981 Ld. Harewood Tongs & Bones ii. 37 We went incessantly to those over⁓public latrines... My squitters were at their worst. |
2. Radar. Random pulses produced by a transponder in the absence of interrogating signals.
| 1958 Proc. Inst. Electr. Engineers CV. b. Suppl. No. 8. 299/2 An average of 2700 pulses/sec are produced by the trigger circuit. These pulses are of constant amplitude and shape, but entirely random in time spacing and are known as ‘squitter’. 1976 P. Honold Secondary Radar i. 67 If the dynamic characteristics of the receiver are too low, the message transmitted may be falsified.., should the signal level be very high. This..will also cause additional dead times—if these are triggered by interference pulses (squitter). |
▪ II. ˈsquitter, v. Now dial.
[Imitative (cf. squit v.), or alteration of skitter v.1]
1. trans. and intr. To squirt; to spatter, splutter.
| 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 102 Inck-squittring and printing against me. 1809 Batchelor Anal. Eng. Lang. 144 Skwitter, scatter, or sputter. 1828– in dial. glossaries (Yks. and Som.). 1897 D'Esterre-Keeling Return to Nature viii, Then he said, looking at the squirt, ‘This squittered’. ‘You didn't make it squitter, did you?’ |
2. intr. To void thin excrement.
| 1611 Florio, Squaccarare, to squatter, to squirt or lash it out behind after a purgation; to squitter. 1671 Skinner, To squitter, forire. 1719 D'Urfey Pills III. 313 And here the Mob make 'em squitter and tremble. 1719 Boyer Dict. Royal i, Foirer,..to squitter. 1886– in dial. glossaries (Som., Devon, Derby). |
Hence ˈsquitterer, ˈsquittering vbl. n.
In quot. 1902 as imitative of a sound.
| 1611 Florio, Squacchera, a squattring soft turde, a squittring. 1737 Ozell Rabelais I. 255 note, The laxative Quality of the White Grape, called for that very Reason Foirard (Squitterer). 1902 Sir H. Johnston Uganda I. i. 16 Hissings and squitterings and splashings..of those [birds] who are starting on flight. |