squeak

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English squeken,^[2][3][4] probably imitative of the sound.^{[5][6][3][7][2][4]} Etymonline, Barnhart and the OED compare Swedish skväka (“to croak”) (Barnhart cites it as Middle Swedish),^[6][4][5][8] and the American Heritage Dictionary and Collins take the word as perhaps or probably Scandinavian in origin, akin to Old Norse skvakka (“to croak”).^[9][10][11] Skeat also derived it from Scandinavian.^[12] Klein and Weekley compare German quieken (“to squeak”),^[13][14] and the Oxford Dictionary of English compares squeal and shriek.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a child, to cry with a short, thin, high-pitched sound: 1387 (manuscript before 1387), in Trevisa's translation of Higden's Polychronicon, where a duke hears a child squeke.^[5][2][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb was used first of people, from 1547 of animals and birds, and of things such as doors and hinges by 1602.^[5] From 1577 it also meant to say or sing something in a squeaking voice, usually in mockery.^[5] Thieves' slang gave it the sense "to confess, to inform", which Green's Dictionary of Slang finds in Heywood in 1631 and the OED in Dryden in 1690;^[16][5] the noun likewise meant an informer from before 1790,^[16] and in the 20th century a piece of information given to the police (1922, in Joyce's Ulysses).^[5] The noun, first the act of squeaking (1660) and then a short high-pitched cry (1700),^[5] came to mean a slight chance (1716) and, in allusion to its thin sound, a narrow escape, as in a narrow squeak (1822, by 1811 in Etymonline).^[5][6][14] In the 20th century the verb added squeak through or squeak by, to get through by a narrow margin (1938).^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1387 – of a person, especially a child, to utter a short high-pitched cry.^[5][2]
• 1547 – of animals and birds.^[5]
• 1577 – transitive, to utter or sing something in a squeaking voice.^[5]
• 1602 – of things, to make a thin high sound.^[5]
• 1631 – slang, to confess or inform.^[16]
• 1660 – noun, the act of squeaking.^[5]
• 1700 – noun, a short high-pitched cry or sound.^[5][3]
• 1716 – noun, a slight chance.^[5][6]
• 1822 – noun, a narrow escape.^[5]
• 1938 – to squeak through, to succeed by a narrow margin.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make a short, shrill, high-pitched sound or cry: The gate squeaked every time the wind moved it.^[10][3][5]
2. To say or utter something in a squeaking voice.^[10][5]
3. To pass, succeed or win by a narrow margin, usually with through or by: The team squeaked through to the final.^[10][3][5]
4. (slang) To confess or inform on someone; to squeal.^[10][3][5]

Noun

1. A short, shrill, usually not loud cry or sound: the squeak of new shoes on the floor.^[10][3][5]
2. (informal) A narrow escape, especially in a narrow squeak or a near squeak.^[10][3][5]
3. A slight chance or opportunity.^[3][5]

Word family

• squeaky
• squeakingly
• pip-squeak
• squeaker
• bubble and squeak

Related words

• squeal
• squawk

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com