squib
Americannoun
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a short and witty or sarcastic saying or writing.
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Journalism. a short news story, often used as a filler.
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a small firework, consisting of a tube or ball filled with powder, that burns with a hissing noise terminated usually by a slight explosion.
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a firecracker broken in the middle so that it burns with a hissing noise but does not explode.
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Australian. a coward.
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an electric, pyrotechnic device for firing the igniter of a rocket engine, especially a solid-propellant engine.
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Obsolete. a mean or paltry fellow.
verb (used without object)
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squibs,
present (3rd person singular)
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squibbed,
past participle, past
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squibbing
present participle
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to write squibs.
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to shoot a squib.
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to explode with a small, sharp sound.
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to move swiftly and irregularly.
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Australian.
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to be afraid.
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to flee; escape.
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verb (used with object)
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squibs,
present (3rd person singular)
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squibbed,
past participle, past
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squibbing
present participle
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to assail in squibs or lampoons.
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to toss, shoot, or utilize as a squib.
noun
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a firework, usually having a tube filled with gunpowder, that burns with a hissing noise and culminates in a small explosion
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a firework that does not explode because of a fault; dud
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a short witty attack; lampoon
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an electric device for firing a rocket engine
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obsolete an insignificant person
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slang a coward
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something intended but failing to impress
verb
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(intr) to sound, move, or explode like a squib
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(intr) to let off or shoot a squib
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to write a squib against (someone)
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(intr) to move in a quick irregular fashion
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slang (intr) to behave in a cowardly fashion
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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squibsimple
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squibssimple
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have squibbedperfect
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has squibbedperfect
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am squibbingprogressive
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are squibbingprogressive
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is squibbingprogressive
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have been squibbingperfect progressive
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has been squibbingperfect progressive
Past
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squibbedsimple
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had squibbedperfect
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was squibbingprogressive
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were squibbingprogressive
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had been squibbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of squib
First recorded in 1515–25; origin uncertain
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:
Polling expert John Curtice told the BBC that Farage had been hoping for a "very substantial political circus" but may end up with a "relatively damp squib" if no one challenges him properly.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
It's no mean feat, albeit both were a damp squib with Scotland wheezing their way to an early exit on each occasion without really landing a punch on, well, anyone.
From BBC ● Nov. 17, 2025
But the much-anticipated showdown between two Heisman-candidate quarterbacks and national championship-quality teams had been a damp squib over the first two quarters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2025
Kicking under the new format feels more like “shanking” a kickoff than doing a squib kick, as Dicker put it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2024
It’s only when I hear a squib of Noise not my own that I open my eyes.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
Getting scant response beyond a few scattered news squibs, the CDC dropped the abuse issue entirely in its follow-up 2023 report.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2023
It was, instead, the dampest of damp squibs, published after quite the bust-up behind closed doors.
From BBC ● May 3, 2023
More the whiff of damp squibs than cordite.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 1, 2020
Barnes writes with elegance and wit, probes motives with a novelist’s imagination but also a historian’s skepticism, plucking memorable formulations — enhanced by his own deft translations — from letters, journals and newspaper squibs.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2020
But there was also a generous distribution of squibs, crackers, backarappers, sparklers, torches, dwarf-candles, elf-fountains, goblin-barkers and thunder-claps.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Harvey jammed Bryson Stott, who squibbed a grounder to the left side.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 14, 2022
Upton grounded into a fielder’s choice for the second out, and Pujols, the slow-footed slugger, squibbed a grounder to the right of the mound.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2018
Howard and Fisher could have squibbed the chance to change Australia’s gun laws, but they didn’t.
From Time ● Jun. 5, 2014
He finally squibbed a curveball back up the middle.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 8, 2012
Total result of one of these firework displays: several thousand rounds of ammunition squibbed off, hundreds of star shells wasted, and no casualties.
From Bullets & Billets by Bruce Bairnsfather
But in the aftermath, many questioned why Buffalo sent its kickoff into the end zone rather than squibbing it to force a return and take critical seconds off the clock.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026
After the Sun Devils nearly broke another return, USC opted to go with its other kicking option, Michael Brown, who resolved to simply squibbing kickoffs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2019
Earlier this week, special teams coach John Baxter noted that USC struggled with squibbing kicks and thus would avoid that strategy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2019
The brawny Fielder had the only hit between them in the ninth, squibbing an infield single up the middle.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 5, 2011
And there is a cabinet minister; well, we know what he is; I have been squibbing him for these two years, and now that I meet him I feel like a snob.
From Endymion by Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
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.
