squab
Americannoun
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squabs,
plural
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squab
plural
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a nestling pigeon, especially a domesticated one raised to an age of about 30 days for its flesh.
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Cooking. the flesh of the squab, used as food.
Our squab was served with a butter and raisin sauce.
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a short, stout person.
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a thickly stuffed, soft cushion.
adjective
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short and thick or broad.
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(of a bird) unfledged or newly hatched.
noun
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a young unfledged bird, esp a pigeon
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a short fat person
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a well-stuffed bolster or cushion
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a sofa
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adjective
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(of birds) recently hatched and still unfledged
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short and fat
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of squab
First recorded in 1630–40; probably from Scandinavian; compare Swedish dialect skvabb “loose, fat flesh,” skvabba “fat woman,” Norwegian skvabb “soft wet mass”
Explanation
A squab is a young domestic pigeon, the domesticated version of the wild rock pigeon. Most people use the word squab when they're talking about this bird as food. If you order squab in a restaurant, you'll be served what looks like a small roasted chicken. The word squab was once used for the meat of any dove or pigeon—including the now-extinct passenger pigeon. In the 17th century, it simply meant "very young bird," but earlier it was used to mean "unformed, lumpish person" or "lumpish mass." The origins of squab are uncertain, but it's probably related to the Swedish skvabb, meaning "loose, fat flesh."
Vocabulary lists containing squab
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
What sounds like a gimmick turns out to be luscious, and a first course of either chawanmushi or roast squab underscores a kitchen steeped in the classics.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 15, 2022
The leaf skin tastes meaty from a simmer in a bone stock of rabbit, chicken and squab with hints of allium and black truffle.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 23, 2022
"Mr. Jiu's in Chinatown" includes a recipe for squab in lettuce cups, though not iceberg.
From Salon ● May 28, 2021
Inside was riotously loud, with the cries of chickens, duck, quail, guinea fowl and the tender pigeons known as squab, jostling for space and pecking seed in tall metal cages.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 17, 2020
He had cooked squab in soy sauce so that the skin and meat were a deep, deep brown all the way to the bone.
From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep
In culinary school, she was the only student with experience in cutting off animal’s heads; taking pity on her squeamish classmates, she butchered all the squabs during the class on game.
From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2010
Young Alger peddled spring water to the neighbors and raised and sold squabs.
From Time Magazine Archive
On the beach, the fivesome whipped up a little barbecue that featured poached striped bass, grilled squabs and lobster farci, plus a bluefish au vin blanc.
From Time Magazine Archive
Mrs. Hambur let it stay to hatch squabs.
From Time Magazine Archive
“The squabs were only able to plug ten thousand of the leaks we have, that means we have ten thousand left, and dag-gum-it, I think we’re going down with all hands on board!”
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
