From the Harry Potter books, a squib is an individual who , despite magical ancestry, does not have magical abilities. See also muggle.

In theater and film, a squib is a small explosive packet which is set off to give the appearance of a bullet or shrapnel impact. Sometimes they may include a small amount of stage blood when the squib is to simulate a wound.

The most spectacular squibs I've seen are in the movie Who'll Stop the Rain, starring Nick Nolte. The bloodiest (surprise surprise) are in the Sam Peckinpah movie Cross of Iron, when the recon patrol is passing through the perimeter against heavy fire from the pillboxes.

Squib (?), n. [OE. squippen, swippen, to move swiftky, Icel. svipa to swoop, flash, dart, whip; akin to AS. swipian to whip, and E. swift, a. See Swift, a.]

1.

A little pipe, or hollow cylinder of paper, filled with powder or combustible matter, to be thrown into the air while burning, so as to burst there with a crack.

Lampoons, like squibs, may make a present blaze. Waller.

The making and selling of fireworks, and squibs . . . is punishable. Blackstone.

2. Mining

A kind of slow match or safety fuse.

3.

A sarcastic speech or publication; a petty lampoon; a brief, witty essay.

Who copied his squibs, and reechoed his jokes. Goldsmith.

4.

A writer of lampoons.

[Obs.]

The squibs are those who in the common phrase of the world are called libelers, lampooners, and pamphleteers. Tatler.

5.

A paltry fellow.

[Obs.]

Spenser.

 

© Webster 1913.


Squib, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Squibbed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Squibbing.]

To throw squibs; to utter sarcatic or severe reflections; to contend in petty dispute; as, to squib a little debate.

[Colloq.]

 

© Webster 1913.

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