▪ I. squidge, n.1
(skwɪdʒ)
[Imitative. In dial. use also denoting ‘a shove’ and, as vb., ‘to squeeze’.]
The sound made by soft mud yielding to sudden pressure.
| 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 111 My companion..steers the boat up to it, and jumps out with a squidge into the black slime. 1905 D. Blackburn R. Hartley xvii, The moment he..heard the squidge of the mud, he realised his position and peril. |
▪ II. squidge, n.2 U.S. slang. rare.
[Origin unknown.]
One charged with performing troublesome duties for another (see quots.).
| 1907 Ade Slim Princess vii. 80 The squidge—that means the fellow who does all the worrying and gets nothing out of it. 1942 ― Let. 16 June (1973) 230 When Mr. and Mrs. Al Laflin and I traveled in distant countries, we always hired a ‘squidge’ the moment we arrived in a new town. His job was to stay with us and accept all the hardships and worries. 1953 [see patsy n.] |
▪ III. squidge, v.
[Cf. squidge n.1; sense 2 may represent an independent imitative formation.)]
trans.
1. To squeeze; to squelch or to mix roughly; to press together, so as to make a sucking noise. Also intr. dial. and colloq.
| 1881 H. & C. R. Smith Isle of Wight Words 34 Squidge, to squeeze. 1939 J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath x. 136 The children squidged their toes in the red dust. 1947 ― Wayward Bus iii. 33 His shoes squidged sloppily on the floor. 1952 ― East of Eden xxxvi. 427 Now spit in your palm... Squidge the spit all together. 1969 Guardian 16 Aug. 3/8 Waiting for the day when lunch will be a blob of something squidged out of a tube. 1971 B. W. Aldiss Soldier Erect 242 The leeches were at me... I squidged them underfoot. 1977 Basildon Yellow Advertiser 19 May 5/2 To clean very dirty nails make a thick lather in a sponge and then ‘squidge’ your nails in the sponge—the suction will draw out the dirt. |
2. Tiddlywinks. To play (a wink) by snapping it with a larger counter.
| 1955 Sci. of Tiddlywinks (Cambridge Univ. Tiddlywinks Club) 8 If the tiddlywink is squidged on the floor it will not rise more than an inch or two. 1962 Time 14 Sept. 56 A squopped wink cannot be squidged again until it is de-squopped. 1977 Sharp & Piggott Bk. Games 165 No player may squidge another's wink. |