squeamish, a., adv., and n.
(ˈskwiːmɪʃ)
Forms: α. 5 squaymysch, 6 -ysh, -ish(e, 6–7 squaimish(e; 6 squeim-, squeymish, skeymishe; 6–7 squamish, north. dial. 8–9 swaimish, 9 swamish. β. 6–7 squemish(e, 7 squeemish (9 dial. skeemish), 6– squeamish; north. dial. 7, 9 sweamish, 9 sweemish.
[var. of squaymes, squemes squeamous a., by alteration of suffix.]
I. 1. Readily affected with nausea; easily turned sick or faint; physically unable to support or swallow anything disagreeable. a. Of persons. † Also const. of.
| c 1450 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. v. xlv. (Bodl. MS.), And þerefor me schal not be squaymysch of vrine, for in many þinges it is profitable and leefe. 1584 Greene Arbasto Wks. (Grosart) III. 192 Art thou so squemish that thou canst not see wine but thou must surfet? 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. vi. 164 Purging Potions, taken by squeamish Persons,..cause a Shivering. 1702 Gay Achilles iii, She is so squeamish and so frequently out of order. 1744 Berkeley Siris §3 Wks. 1871 II. 367 For children and squeamish persons it may be made weaker. 1777 Cook Voy., Pacific (1784) II. iii. x. 186 We found that he was too squeamish to drink turtle's blood. |
| fig. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 486 Yet am I not so squeamish, that I can well enough digest a good Booke. 1740 Cibber Apol. (1756) I. 11 As his patron knew the patient was squeamish, he was induced to sweeten the medicine to his taste. |
| transf. a 1677 Barrow Serm. Wks. 1686 III. 88 Thou hast a squeamish conscience, which cannot relish this, cannot digest that advantageous course of proceeding. |
b. Of the stomach.
| 1620 Venner Via Recta ii. 152 It is very good for such as haue squamish & waterie stomacks. a 1707 Bp. Patrick Comm. 2 Sam. xiii. 5 He would have him pretend that his stomach was so nice and squeamish, that he would like nothing that his servants dressed. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. v. (1876) 318 Their squeamish stomachs sickened at the rough fare. |
| fig. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. State v. ii. 363 The stomach of his Holinesse not being so squeamish, but that he would take a good almes from dirty hands. 1760 Sterne Tr. Shandy iv. xxxii, Nor do I value whose squeamish stomach takes offence at it. 1843 Lowell Glance behind the Curtain 85 But now the uneasy stomach of the time Turns squeamish at them both. |
2. Slightly affected with nausea; sickish, qualmish.
| 1660 Pepys Diary 7 April, This day..the wind grew high, and..I began to be dizzy and squeamish. 1689 Muses Farew. Popery 81 When Satan was squeamish, and long'd for a Dainty, The Pope Fricasseed him this New Four-and-twenty. 1756 M. Calderwood in Coltness Collect. (Maitland Club) 128 Then down I must go, and into bed as soon as possible, very very squeamish. I could not keep my feet in the cabin. 1817 J. Evans Excurs. Windsor, etc. 485 Passed the North Foreland with a little swell, and most of the passengers were squeamish. 1887 Poor Nellie (1888) 411 You're feeling squeamish, I see, so take my advice and have a brandy-and-soda. |
† 3. Apt to produce qualms;
= qualmish a. 3.
| a 1571 Jewel Serm. i. Wks. (1611) 974 When they had manna in their mouths, they thought it a loathsome and a squeamish meat. |
4. Characterized by a sickish feeling.
rare.
| 1670 Covel in Early Voy. Levant (Hakluyt Soc.) 102 Our Freshmen passengers were all in a miserable, squeamish, and puking condition. 1748 Thomson Cast. Indol. i. lxxvii, Fast by her side a listless maiden pin'd, With aching head, and squeamish heart-burnings. |
II. † 5. Averse, unwilling, or backward
to do something.
Obs.| 1553 Respublica i. iii. 278, I shall tell Respublica ye can beste governe: bee not ye than skeymishe to take in hand the stern. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. viii. (Arb.) 38 Let none other meaner person..be any whit squeimish to let it be publisht vnder their names, for reason serues it, and modestie doth not repugne. |
6. Averse to freedom or familiarity of intercourse; distant, reserved, coy, cold.
Also, in
mod. dial., modest, bashful, diffident, shy.
| α 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione's Courtyer iii. (1577) N vij, This woman ought not therefore..[to] be so squeimish and make wise to abhorre both the company & the talke. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Delicium, Delicias facere, to make strange and dally, because he would be intreated: to be squaymish. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia i. (1912) 118 Yet for countenance sake, he seemed very squeimish, in respect of the charge he had of the Princesse Pamela. 1788– in northern dial. glossaries (in form swaimish or swamish). |
| β 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Desdaigneux, squemish, coye, disdainfull. 1584 Lyly Sappho i. iv. 7 Proud elfe! how squeamish he is become alreadie, vsing both disdaineful lookes, And imperious words. 1607 Dekker & Marston Northw. Hoe iv. D.'s Wks. 1873 III. 59 A comely country mayd, not squeamish nor afraid, To let Gentlemen touch. c 1665 Roxb. Ball. (1886) VI. 256 Virgins, take my advice, be not disdainful; Neither be coy and nice, squemish nor scornful. 1710 Palmer Proverbs 115 A woman of virtue keeps a guard upon her eye, and yet don't affect to look soure, squeamish, and suspicious. |
| transf. 1583 B. Melbancke Philotimus C j b, As for Pallas, she is dainty, but not squemish, hard to be found, but easy to be intreated. |
| Comb. 1603 Florio Montaigne ii. i. (1894) 166 Fair and soft, as squemish-honest as she seems,..conclude not rashly an inviolable chastitie to be on your Mistresse. |
† b. Const.
of: Averse to being free or generous with (something).
Obs.| 1566 Painter Pal. Pleas. i. (1569) 195 The more she proved the King inflamed with her love, the more squeymish she was of her beautie. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 37 You haue shewed your selfe..not squemish or deintie of your singular beneuolence. a 1625 Fletcher Woman's Prize v. i, Petro. I think 'twere well you would see her. Row. If you please, Sir; I am not squeamish of my visitation. |
† c. Of actions, etc.: Characterized by coldness or coyness.
Obs.| 1577 Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. Ep. Ded. in Holinshed, I was by them weied not to beare my selfe coy, by giuing my entier friends in so reasonable a request a squemish repulse. 1600 J. Lane Tom Tel-troth (1876) 119 Some gogle with the eyes, some squint-eyd looke, Some at their fellowes, squemish sheepes-eyes cast. 1603 Florio Montaigne i. xx. (1632) 42 Their wanton, squeamish, quarellous countenances, which setting us a fire, extinguish us. |
7. Readily offended by anything approaching immodesty or indecency; easily shocked; prudish.
| 1567 Harman Caveat (1869) 55 Because the sight shoulde not abash her shamefast maydens, nether loth her squaymysh sight. 1677 W. Hughes Man of Sin ii. v. 94 If the good Man blush'd,..he may be pardon'd for this once, being not so squeamish often. 1742 Fielding J. Andrews i. xii, This the maid readily promised to perform,..being..not so squeamish as the lady. 1842 S. Lover Handy Andy xvi, ‘I'm not squeamish, sir,’ said Miss Augusta; ‘but it's dreadful to be shut up with a man who has no clothes on him’. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. I. 217 As to the nudities,..they might well have startled a not very squeamish eye. 1892 Baring-Gould Strange Survivals x. 220 Riddles more or less good, some coarse, and some profane; but the age was not squeamish. |
† b. Sensitive; shrinking from contact with anything rude or rough.
Obs.| 1707 Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 61 Sulphureous Matters that compose the Flowers..are soon devour'd by the open Air, which destroys those frail and squeamish Beauties. 1782 Cowper Poet, Oyster & Sensit. Pl. 55 And, as for you, my Lady Squeamish, Who reckon ev'ry touch a blemish. 1785 Burke Sp. Nabob of Arcot's Debts Wks. I. 345 The person so squeamish, so timid, so trembling lest the winds of heaven should visit too roughly. |
8. Sensitively or excessively fastidious, scrupulous, particular, or punctilious, with regard to standards of action or belief.
| 1581 T. Newton Seneca's Trag. Ded., And whereas it is by some squeymish Areopagites surmyzed that the reading of these Tragedies..cannot be digested without great danger [etc.]. 1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. ii. i, High honour'd blood's too squemish to assent, And lend a hand to an ignoble act. 1676 W. Allen Addr. Non-Conform. 135 When they are nice, curious, and squeamish about undetermined circumstances in forms of administration. c 1690 Ld. Delamere Disc. Incouragers of Popery Wks. (1694) 93 Let then the high Church be more charitable, and the Dissenters less stiff and sweamish. 1724 Welton Chr. Faith & Pract. 70 They were so squeamish upon the literal, and so loose and moderate in the moral sense. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 272 Another, who had not the same squeamish disposition, might have found enjoyments enow under general censure..to make life desirable. 1829 A. Cunningham Brit. Painters i. 41 If Laud had not doated on trifles, and the Presbyterians had been squeamish about them. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiii. III. 274 Where enthusiasts are ready..to be destroyed for trifles magnified into importance by a squeamish conscience. 1881 Scribner's Mag. XXII. 144 Some of the early American statesmen, doubtless, were not any too squeamish in their political maneuverings. |
| Comb. 1581 J. Studley Seneca's Agamemnon A iij, Although as squemishe hearted men those priests in bedlem rage. |
b. With preps., as
about,
as to,
at,
of.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osorius 417 But I will not be so squemish about these trifles. 1582 N. T. (Rhem.) p. xx, Why should we be squamish at newe wordes or phrases in the scripture which are necessarie. a 1660 Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.) I. 276 Neuer squemishe of any your proceedings. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ iii. i. §3 Those whose minds are so coy and squeamish as to any thing of Divine revelation. 1865 Bright Sp., Canada 67 They are not so squeamish as to what they say about us. 1872 E. Yates Castaway ii. vii, I don't pretend..to be squeamish about such matters. |
c. Marked or characterized by fastidiousness or scrupulousness.
| 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 158 All resteth vpon a case of conscience, as nice and squeamish a scruple [etc.]. a 1658 Cleveland Wks. (1687) 99 Your pen is coy, and you ware the Holy Ground and Holy Coyn with a squeamish Pretention. 1776 Cowper Let. Wks. 1837 XV. 36 You perceive I have not made a squeamish use of your obliging offer. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 10 In a bachelor's house..there is no lady to stand upon squeamish points about lodging gentlemen in old holes and corners. 1884 Browning Ferishtah (1885) 73 So, with thy squeamish scruple. |
9. Fastidious or dainty with respect to what one handles, uses, or comes in contact with.
| 1608 Topsell Serpents 789 If we would..not be so squeamish as to refuse those wholesome medicines which are easie to be had. 1697 Vanbrugh Prov. Wife iii. i, I'll warrant it's some squeamish minx as my wife, that's grown so dainty of late, she finds fault even with a dirty shirt. 1746 Francis tr. Hor., Sat. ii. vi. 176 If delicacies could invite My squeamish courtier's appetite, Who turn'd his nose at every dish. 1800 M. Edgeworth Belinda xxii, I have heard..that the passion of love, which can endure caprice, vice, [etc.] is notwithstanding so squeamish as to be instantaneously disgusted by the perception of folly in the object beloved. 1860 W. H. G. Kingston Pirate Medit. I. 12 He's the fellow to make your kid-glove wearing gentlemen dip their hands in the tar-bucket..if he sees they are in any way squeamish about it. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Eur. (1894) ix. 206 Our nerves..are unduly delicate, and our tastes too squeamish. |
| absol. 1828 (title), The Adventures of Doctor Comicus;..a Comic Satirical Poem, for the Squeamish and the Queer. |
† 10. a. Having aversion or antipathy
at or
towards something.
Obs.| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answer to Osorius 249 b, Beyng squeymish at Luthers speache. 1654 Whitlock Zootom. 360 Squemish towards the present, and longing for Innovation. |
† b. to make squeamish, to hesitate or shrink; to show dislike.
Obs.| 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vii. xliii. §4. 355 This great Oracle..made it not squemish to giue them this aduice. a 1617 Bayne Lect. (1634) 197 If he [God] delight in us, what matter if the world make squemish of us? |