▪ I. squad, n.1
(skwɒd)
[ad. F. escouade, earlier esquade (esquouade), var. of esquadre squader.]
1. Mil. a. A small number of men, a subdivision or section of a company, formed for drill or told off for some special purpose.
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, clxxxv, The Ragged Squad, whose Pay, ill-husbanded, Gives him nor Shooes nor Shirt. 1673 Reg. Privy Counc. Scotl. IV. 98 The commander of that squad of his Majesties troup of guardes, quartered at Bathgate. 1757 Washington Writ. (1889) I. 468 Divide your men into as many squads as there are Sergeants. 1811 Regul. & Orders Army 244 The Commanding Officer will cause them, by Squads of 20 or more, to move round the Vessel in double quick time, each Squad for ten or twelve minutes. 1844 Ibid. 133 The Subaltern Officers, to whom the Squads are entrusted, are responsible for the same to the Captain. 1877 Field Exerc. Infantry 4 Recruits formed into a Squad should be directed to observe the relative places they hold with each other. |
b. awkward squad: (see
quot. 1802).
| 1796 Burns in Cunningham Wks. & Life B. (1834) I. 344 John, don't let the awkward squad fire over me. 1802 James Milit. Dict. s.v., The aukward squad consists not only of recruits at drill, but of formed soldiers that are ordered to exercise with them, in consequence of some irregularity under arms. 1842 Macaulay Ess., Fredk. Gt. (1877) 659 The household regiments of Versailles and St. James's would have appeared an awkward squad. 1878 Besant & Rice Celia's Arb. v, The march and movement of troops,..the drill of the awkward squad, delighted his soul. |
| transf. 1797 S. James Narr. Voy. 205 The butchers here are a truly aukward squad. 1816 [see awkward a. 4 b]. 1856 P. Thompson Hist. Boston Provincialisms, They're a dirty squad, an awkward squad. |
c. Without article.
| 1833 Regul. & Instr. Cavalry i. 9 Each Recruit must be trained..in squad. |
† 2. = squadron n. 3.
Obs. rare.
| 1673 in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. I. 80 On Monday the fleets ingadged;..a whole squad surroundit Sir Edward Sprag, who was in the Royal Prince. 1676 Row Contin. Blair's Autobiog. xii. (1848) 509 All that the King was able to do was to set out some squads of small ships. |
3. a. A small number, group, or party of persons.
| 1809 Malkin Gil Blas iv. ix. ¶2 In my mistress's female squad there was a nymph named Portia. 1830 Scott Demonol. ix. 284 The witches of Auldearn were so numerous that they were told off into squads, or covines. 1841 Catlin N. Amer. Ind. xxiv. (1844) I. 201 The same intelligence was soon communicated by little squads to every family. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xx. 243, I cannot realize that some may not yet be alive; that some small squad or squads..may not have found a hunting-ground. |
b. Const.
of. Also
transf. and
fig.| 1818 Keats Lett. Wks. 1889 III. 115, I am in a high way of being introduced to a squad of people, Peter Pindar, Mrs. Opie, Mrs. Scott. 1825 Cobbett Rur. Rides 83 We saw..squads of labourers..migrating from tract to tract. 1857 Borrow Romany Rye xlii, He had a very shabby squad of animals, without soul or spirit. 1896 E. A. King Ital. Highways 91 A large squad of liveried servants. 1914 Joyce Dubliners 244 Three squads of bottles of stout and ale and minerals, drawn up according to the colours of their uniforms. 1940 T. S. Eliot East Coker v. 14 The general mess of imprecision of feeling Undisciplined squads of emotion. 1979 N. & Q. Feb. 83/2 The only unforgiveable fault is the abbreviation of titles to unpronounceable squads of initials. |
c. In the
phr. in squads.
| a 1848 O. W. Holmes Stethoscope Song 64 They every day her ribs did pound In squads of twenty. 1852 Motley Corr. (1889) I. v. 132 People..making excursions into the country in small squads. 1869 T. Rogers Hist. Gleanings I. 84 In the Georgian era men and women were hanged in squads. |
4. a. A particular set or circle of people.
| 1786 Burns To J. S. xxviii, The hairum-scairum, ramstam boys, The rambling [1787 rattling] squad. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas iii. xi. ¶8 To study the feelings of authors..would only be the way to spoil them. I know that contemptible squad. 1818 Blackw. Mag. III. 533 Tho' used by Hunt, and Keats, and all that squad. |
b. Sport (
orig. U.S.). A group of players forming a team or from which a team is chosen.
| 1902 Harvard Bull. 19 Mar. 2/2 The rest of the squad will leave the cage as soon as the ground is dry enough. 1920 W. Camp Football without Coach i. 17 A player should take the ball in his hands,..release it and pass it to the next player. This next man repeats the performance, and so it goes through the squad. 1950 Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Okla.) 15 Jan. 14/3 It was the second loss of the season for the Tiger ‘A’ squad as the unbeaten Cougars took them 47 to 40. 1975 Cricketer May 4/1 Intikhab Alam..has been omitted from the squad of 19 from which the 14 will finally be chosen. 1981 G. Boycott In Fast Lane i. 7 Like everyone who has ever played or watched a cricket match I have my own views about the tour party—and I wouldn't have picked quite this squad. |
c. A unit within a police force, organized to investigate or prevent a particular type of crime;
freq. in
ellipt. use for
flying squad s.v. flying ppl. a. 4 e (
b). See also
fraud,
murder,
riot,
vice squad at first element.
| 1905 N.Y. Times 22 June 8/6 Commissioner McAdoo selected yesterday the men for the special squad which will arrest women in the streets. 1928 E. Wallace Flying Squad xv. 132 You do your best, eh? You did your best to put Bradley away, and draw the attention of the Squad to you and me! 1938 [see guy v.4]. 1939 ‘N. West’ Day of Locust xxvii. 221 A big squad of policemen was trying to keep a lane open between the front rank of the crowd and the fa{cced}ade of the theatre. 1962 Daily Tel. 15 June 22/5 Three detectives, two of them drug squad officers, flew to Gibralter from London yesterday to investigate the haul of illegal drugs found in the cruiser Belfast. 1980 Times 24 Jan. 5/3 Serious crime squads throughout Britain are searching for the inventor and manufacturer of a black box which contains a device that can reverse electricity meter readings. |
5. attrib., as
squad car,
squad-dance,
squad drill,
squad instructor,
squad leader,
squad room, etc.;
squad bag (see
quot. 1876).
| 1869 E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 403 Squad bags are issued to infantry, four to each company. 1876 Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. 398/1 Squad Bags, canvas bags provided for troops (one for every 25 men), for the purpose of relieving a soldier from carrying a complete kit on the line of march or in the field. |
| 1864 Daily Tel. 14 March, A suttler..is dispensing beer from squad barrels to a knot of thirsty labourers. |
| 1938 F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad x. 120 A Squad car went down at once. 1956 D. G. Browne Rise of Scotl. Yard iii. xxv. 339 Squad cars, area cars, and ‘Q’ cars..kept in touch by wireless with the Information Room at Scotland Yard. 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard iii. 109 Sneed parked behind the squad car, which had been directed via the information room. |
| 1865 E. Burritt Walk to Land's End 171 Inaugurating a new term of service with..squad-dances in the public street. |
| 1891 Macm. Mag. Oct. 466/1 The best thing for them to do would be to go back to squad drill. 1899 T. S. Baldock Cromwell as a Soldier 24 The drill consisted of what we should now call ‘squad drill’. |
| 1859 Musketry Instr. 46 The squad instructor opposite the 50 yards point. |
| 1953 Amer. Speech XXVIII. 23 A special group is formed by these military words and phrases{ddd}squad, squad leader, and training. 1967 tr. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung (ed. 2) 106 The secretary of a Party committee must be good at being a ‘squad leader’. |
| 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 121 In other Corps a Troop, Company, or Squad Police has been introduced. |
| 1946 Sun (Baltimore) 3 July 15/4 John Moynahan, lockup keeper at the town hall police station, was puzzled as he watched Midnight, the seven-year-old station cat, leap madly around the squadroom. 1981 W. Marshall Perfect End 5 [He] went through the lobby and into the squadroom. |
Add:
[4.] d. ellipt. for
squad car.
Police slang.
| 1974 Amer. Speech 1971 XLVI. 78 Police sedan, police car, squad car, squad, prowl car. 1980 ‘A. Blaisdell’ Consequence of Crime (1981) x. 170 When he passed the last window he broke into a run, and dived for the squad on the passenger side. 1984 ‘D. Shannon’ Destiny of Death (1985) vii. 148 Bill Moss, riding a squad on night watch,..picked up a man lying against the curb in the street. |
▪ II. † squad, n.2 Mining.
Obs. rare.
Also 8
squod.
= shoad.
| 1674 Ray Coll. Words 120 The tinners [in Cornwall] find the Mine by the Shoad (or as they call it Squad) which is loose stones of tin mixed with Earth. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Shoaled, Sometimes it [shoad] is called Squad, and Squod. c 1830 M. Edgeworth Lame Jervas ii, ‘Loose ore of tin mixed with the earth, which in those days we used to call shoad or squad.’.. ‘We call it squad to this day, master,’ interrupted one of the miners. |
▪ III. squad, n.3 dial. Soft slimy mud.
| 1847 in Halliwell. 1866– in dial. glossaries, etc. (Lincs., Leics.). 1880 Tennyson Northern Cobbler iv, I coom'd neck-an-crop..down i' the squad an' the muck. |
▪ IV. † squad, a. Obs. rare.
[Cf. squab a. and squat a.] = squaddy a.
| 1675 Covel in Early Voy. Levant (Hakluyt Soc.) 216 First there was a bastanjé, a middle-sized squad fellow, who shew a vast strength in tossing about weights. 1729 T. Cooke Tales 96 A short squad Figure, with a wadling Pace. |
▪ V. squad, v. (
skwɒd)
[f. squad n.1] 1. trans. To divide or form into squads; to draw up in a squad.
| 1802 James Milit. Dict., To Squad, to divide a troop or company into certain parts, in order to drill the men separately, or in small bodies. 1841 Lever C. O'Malley lxxxvi. 416, I say, lads, squad your men and form on the road. 1884 Pall Mall G. 16 July 8/2 A few Lancashire and metropolitan corps are squadded first this morning. |
2. To assign or allocate to a squad.
| 1802 James Milit. Dict. s.v., Recruits should always be quartered and squadded with old soldiers who are known to be steady and well behaved. Ibid., The stables must like⁓wise be squadded entire; that is, no one stable must be allotted to two separate squads. |
Hence
ˈsquadded ppl. a.| 1896 Daily News 18 July 6/4 Three Squadded Competitions have been finished this evening. |