squab

Definition

A fledgling (young) bird.

Etymology

Unknown. Possibly related to dialectal Swedish skvabb (“fatty, flabby”). First attested in the 17th century.

Example Sentences

• "Squab may be consumed by ripping the bird apart with your hands and sucking the meat from the bones."
• "a. 1744, Alexander Pope (imitating Earl of Dorset), Artemisia, 1795, Robert Anderson (editor), A Complete Edition of the Poets of Great Britain, page 86, On her large ſquab you find her ſpread, / Like a fat corpſe upon a bed, / That lies and ſtinks in ſtate."
• "[H]erds of shabby vampires, Jew and Christian, over-run the house, [...] punching the squabs of chairs and sofas with their dirty fists, touzling the feather-beds, opening and shutting all the drawers, balancing the silver spoons and forks, looking into the very threads of the drapery and linen, and disparaging everything."