Last modified on 14 May 2015, at 13:26





squint (third-person singular simple present squints, present participle squinting, simple past and past participle squinted)

  1. (intransitive) To look with the eyes partly closed, as in bright sunlight, or as a threatening expression.
    The children squinted to frighten each other.
  2. (intransitive) To look or glance sideways.
  3. (intransitive) To look with, or have eyes that are turned in different directions; to suffer from strabismus.
  4. (intransitive, figuratively) To have an indirect bearing, reference, or implication; to have an allusion to, or inclination towards, something.
    • The Forum
      Yet if the following sentence means anything, it is a squinting toward hypnotism.
  5. (intransitive, Scotland) To be not quite straight, off-centred; to deviate from a true line; to run obliquely.
  6. (transitive) To turn to an oblique position; to direct obliquely.
    to squint an eye



squint (plural squints)

  1. An expression in which the eyes are partly closed.
  2. The look of eyes which are turned in different directions, as in strabismus.
    He looks handsome although he's got a slight squint.
  3. ​A quick or sideways glance.
  4. A short look.
    • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Episode 12, The Cyclops
      --Give us a squint at her, says I.
  5. A hagioscope.
  6. (radio transmission) The angle by which the transmission signal is offset from the normal of a phased array antenna.


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