square
pronunciation
How to pronounce square in British English:
UK [skweə(r)]
How to pronounce square in American English:
US [skwer]
-
- Noun:
- (geometry) a plane rectangle with four equal sides and four right angles; a four-sided regular polygon
- the product of two equal terms
- an open area at the meeting of two or more streets
- something approximating the shape of a square
- someone who doesn't understand what is going on
- a formal and conservative person with old-fashioned views
- any artifact having a shape similar to a plane geometric figure with four equal sides and four right angles
- a hand tool consisting of two straight arms at right angles; used to construct or test right angles
-
- Verb:
- raise to the second power
- make square
- cause to match, as of ideas or acts
- position so as to be square
- be compatible with
- pay someone and settle a debt
- turn the paddle; in canoeing
- turn the oar, while rowing
-
- Adjective:
- having four equal sides and four right angles or forming a right angle
- leaving no balance
- characterized by honesty and fairness
- without evasion or compromise
- rigidly conventional or old-fashioned
-
- Adverb:
- in a straight direct way
- with honesty and fairness
- in a square shape
- firmly and solidly
Word Origin
- square
- square: [13] Etymologically a square is a ‘four’- sided figure. The word comes via Old French esquare or esqire (squire was the Middle English form of square) from Vulgar Latin *exquadra, a derivative of *exquadrāre ‘square’. This was a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix ex- and Latin quadrāre ‘square’, a derivative of the Latin stem quat-, quad- ‘four’, from which English gets quadrant, quarantine, quarter, etc, as well as cadre, and, via Italian, squad and squadron. The use of the adjective square for ‘stuffy, old-fashioned’ originated in jazz circles in the USA in the 1940s.=> cadre, quadrant, quarter, squadron
- square (n.)
- mid-13c., "tool for measuring right angles, carpenter's square," from Old French esquire "a square, squareness," from Vulgar Latin *exquadra, back-formation from *exquadrare "to square," from Latin ex- "out" (see ex-) + quadrare "make square, set in order, complete," from quadrus "a square" (see quadrant). Meaning "square shape or area" is recorded by late 14c. (Old English used feower-scyte). Geometric sense "four-sided rectilinear figure" is from 1550s; mathematical sense of "a number multiplied by itself" is first recorded 1550s. Sense of "open space in a town or park" is from 1680s; that of "area bounded by four streets in a city" is from c. 1700. As short for square meal, from 1882. Square one "the very beginning" (often what one must go back to) is from 1960, probably a figure from board games.
- square (adj.)
- early 14c., "containing four equal sides and right angles," from square (n.), or from Old French esquarre, past participle of esquarrer. Meaning "honest, fair," is first attested 1560s; that of "straight, direct" is from 1804. Of meals, from 1868. Sense of "old-fashioned" is 1944, U.S. jazz slang, said to be from shape of a conductor's hand gestures in a regular four-beat rhythm. Square-toes meant nearly the same thing late 18c.: "precise, formal, old-fashioned person," from the style of men's shoes worn early 18c. and then fallen from fashion. Squaresville is attested from 1956. Square dance attested by 1831; originally one in which the couples faced inward from four sides; later of country dances generally. [T]he old square dance is an abortive attempt at conversation while engaged in walking certain mathematical figures over a limited area. [March 1868]
- square (v.)
- late 14c. of stones, from Old French esquarrer, escarrer "to cut square," from Vulgar Latin *exquadrare (see square (adj.)). Meaning "regulate according to standard" is from 1530s; sense of "to accord with" is from 1590s. With reference to accounts from 1815. In 15c.-17c. the verb also could mean "to deviate, vary, digress, fall out of order." Related: Squared; squaring.
- square (adv.)
- 1570s, "fairly, honestly," from square (adj.). From 1630s as "directly, in line." Sense of "completely" is American-English, colloquial, by 1862.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Some migrants were sleeping rough in the square .
- 2. The swarming jellies covered 10 square miles of water .
- 3. But the lion 's mighty pipes are square .
- 4. The rest are square or rectangular .
- 5. There is a large square stone near a river in northern wales .