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squirt

[ skwurt ]
/ skwɜrt /
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verb (used without object)
to eject liquid in a jet from a narrow orifice: The hose squirted all over us.
to eject a spurt of liquid: The lemon squirted in my eye.
verb (used with object)
to cause (liquid or a viscous substance) to spurt or issue in a jet, as from a narrow orifice: Squirt the water over that way!
to wet or bespatter with a liquid or viscous substance so ejected: to squirt someone with a hose.
noun
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In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

Origin of squirt

1425–75; (v.) late Middle English squirten, apparently variant of swirten; cognate with Low German swirtjen in same sense; perhaps akin to swirl; (noun) late Middle English sqwyrt diarrhea, derivative of the v.

OTHER WORDS FROM squirt

squirter, nounsquirt·ing·ly, adverbun·squirt·ed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use squirt in a sentence

  • This apparently indicates his guilt, and the pilot labels him a “squirter.”

    Buy Your Own Drone! Now Only $300 Online|Clive Stafford-Smith|April 28, 2012|DAILY BEAST
  • I would like to get the miserable ink-squirter who wrote that, and make him run at five hundred yards from my Martini.

    Aletta|Bertram Mitford
  • The modern touch was shown in Councillor Cotterill's bay windows, bath-room and garden squirter.

  • If thou bringest old histories up again, thou wilt receive thy old school-name, 'the Smoke-squirter.'

    O. T.|Hans Christian Andersen

British Dictionary definitions for squirt

squirt
/ (skwɜːt) /

verb
to force (a liquid) or (of a liquid) to be forced out of a narrow opening
(tr) to cover or spatter with liquid so ejected
noun
a jet or amount of liquid so ejected
the act or an instance of squirting
an instrument used for squirting
informal
  1. a person regarded as insignificant or contemptible
  2. a short person

Derived forms of squirt

squirter, noun

Word Origin for squirt

C15: of imitative origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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