▪ I. squark, n.
(skwɑːk)
[Imitative.]
A harsh croak; a squawk.
| 1860 Simeon Fishing 244 If..a jay happens to catch sight of you, at his first warning squark every pheasant will..be off instanter. 1894 Horse & Hound II. 226 Perhaps the squarks of those young herns frightened that fox. |
▪ II. squark, n.2 Particle Physics.
(skwɔːk, skwɑːk)
[f. super- + quark n.1]
The supersymmetric counterpart of a quark, with spin 0 instead of ½.
| 1982 Physics Lett. B. CXIV. 235 A non-vanishing baryon asymmetry can be generated by the decay of coloured Higgs bosons and Higgs fermions into quarks and squarks. 1984 New Scientist 17 May 16/2 Supersymmetric theorists..have had to make up lots of new names for the unseen ‘sparticles’, such as the spin-0 supersymmetric quarks and leptons (‘squarks’ and ‘sleptons’). 1986 Nature 14 Aug. 592/3 The Tevatron should see squarks, the superpartners of quarks, if their masses are less than 200–300 GeV. |
▪ III. squark, v.
(skwɑːk)
[Imitative: cf. prec. and quark v.]
1. intr. Of birds: To croak harshly; to squawk.
| 1871 W. Morris in Mackail Life (1899) I. 235, I heard a heron ‘squark’ just now. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 236 By no means all the birds here only screech and squark. Several of them have very lovely notes. |
2. trans. To utter in croaks.
| 1891 Chambers's Jrnl. 31 Oct. 703 The crows will come and sit round, squarking sarcastic remarks. |
Hence ˈsquarking vbl. n.
| 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 92 Save for this squarking of the parrots the swamps are silent all the day. |