▪ I. squinch, n.1 Arch.
(skwɪnʃ)
[var. scunch n.]
† 1. A stone cut to serve as a scuncheon. Obs.
| c 1500–18 Acc. Building Louth Spire in Archaeol. (1792) X. 80 Also paid to Nicholas Brancell for 100 foot achlere, and squinches of 18 inches high and 15 at the least. |
2. A straight or arched support constructed across an angle in order to carry some superstructure.
It is not clear whether Parker had any authority for this use of the term.
| 1840 Parker Gloss. Arch. (ed. 3) I. 203. 1850 Ibid. (ed. 5) I. 441 Because they have no tendency to expand the walls, which is always to be feared when the arched squinch is used. Ibid., The straight squinch is often employed externally. 1886 Archaeol. Cant. XVI. p. lxvii, The squinch in the north-east corner of the tower, supporting the staircase. |
| attrib. 1850 Parker Gloss. Arch. (ed. 5) II. 79 In the first example two of the squinch arches for carrying the octagonal faces of the spire are shewn. 1895 Edin. Rev. Apr. 466 The squinch-arch method is more elastic in this respect. |
3. A small structure, with two triangular faces, sloping back from an angle of a tower against the superimposed side of a spire.
| 1848 Rickman Architecture p. xxxi, A good specimen of a plain tower, and broach-spire, with squinches and spire⁓lights. 1849 Arch. Notes Ch. Archdeaconry Northampt. 192 [The spire's] great height, the very small size of the squinches connecting it with the square Tower [etc.]. |
▪ II. squinch, n.2
[Of doubtful origin.]
1. A slit or narrow opening in a building. Cf. squint n. 5.
| 1602–3 in Hartland Gloss. (1891) 73 Item pd to Hughe the glasier for glasse for the litle Squinches of the Tower, xd. 1848 Continental Ecclesiology 95 Some open squinches looking into the synagogue, in three stages, are from the women's galleries. 1879 Temple Bar Aug. 470 Many of these little churches..are of very massive construction, with a squinch or hagioscope practised in the thickness of the wall. |
2. dial. A crevice between floor-boards or the like; a crack.
| 1837– in Devonshire glossaries, etc. |
▪ III. squinch, n.3
A strong grip, twist, or wrench.
| 1893 Baring-Gould Cheap Jack Zita II. 18 That squinch of the wrist you gave me. |
▪ IV. squinch, v. U.S.
[Cf. prec. and squint v.]
1. trans. To screw or distort (the face).
| 1840 Haliburton Clockm. Ser. iii. (1862) 443 Lord! how she'll kick and squeel when I spread her out on the close-horse. How it will make her squinch her face, won't it? 1939 Real Detective Mag. Aug. 89 She squinched and twisted her too prominent nose in a way that was not at all becoming. 1956 R. Ellison in W. King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 263 Buster stopped and looked at me, squinching up his eyes with his head cocked to one side. 1974 Gen. Systems XIX. 65/2 Within a few hours, the palsy paralyzes the seventh cranial nerve, squinching half the victim's face. The eye cannot close and it waters excessively. The lips displace, and the mouth corner sags. |
2. intr. To squeeze up so as to occupy less place; to crouch. Also with advbs., as down, over, etc.
| 1843 ‘J. Slick’ High Life in N.Y. II. 195 Wal, she squinched a trifle and gin a leetle start. 1942 W. Faulkner Go down, Moses ii. 158 The old woman was kind of squinched down in one corner. 1972 M. J. Bosse Incident at Naha iii. 144 Virgil..waited for me to move from the doorway, which I did not by rising but by squinching over. |
Add: Hence ˈsquinched ppl. a. (also with up).
| 1899 B. W. Green Word-bk. Virginia Folk-Speech 359 Squinched-up, to have a squinched-up look, to be thin and shrivelled; a lean and shrunken look. 1941 Agee & Evans Let Us now praise Famous Men III. 399 Annie Mae is all squinched up on the bed like the devil was after her. 1954 J. Steinbeck Sweet Thursday 42 There are squinched up mean walks and blustering walks, shy creeping walks, but this was a gay walk. 1955 F. O'Connor Wise Blood xi. 185 She brushed it back..looking down into his squinched face. 1988 A. Tyler Breathing Lessons (1989) i. ii. 54 She caught sight of the squinched blue chicory flower lolling above one ear. |