English

Adjective

squally ‎(comparative squallier or more squally, superlative squalliest or most squally)

1. Characterized by squalls, or sudden violent bursts of wind; gusty.
   • 1759, John Lindsay, A Voyage to the Coast of Africa, In 1758, page 107:

     On the eighth of February the winds grew ſtrong and ſqually, accompanied with rain and a north-weſt ſwell; […] .

   • 1824, John Davy, Observations on the Specific Gravity and Temperature of Sea-Water, Made During a Voyage from Ceylon to England, in 1819 and 1820, David Brewster, Robert Jameson (editors), The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Volume 10, page 319:

     Feb. 9. 1820. […] The night was rather squally and cloudy, with occasional showers.

   • 2011, Mary Maclaren, The Four Elizabeths, Xlibris (2011), ISBN 9781456853723, page 138:

     Within three days, having sailed into increasingly squally winds but still with extremely high temperatures, Arndell found himself kept busy with renewed bouts of seasickness.

2. Producing or characteristic of loud wails.
   • 1953, Annemarie Selinko, Désirée, William Morrow & Company (1953), page 161:

     Something whimpered in the room—high and squally.

   • 1984, Bernard Evslin, Hercules, Open Road Integrated Media (2012), ISBN 9781453264478, unnumbered page:

     One baby was three times as big as his brother and different in other ways. He wasn't bald and squinched and squally like most infants, but had a nimbus of red-gold hair and huge gray eyes and lay there smiling to himself.

   • 2012, Ferida Wolff, "Not My Father's Son", in Chicken Soup for the Father and Son Soul: Celebrating the Bond That Connects Generations, Open Road Integrated Media (2012), ISBN 9781453274910, unnumbered page:

     “Well,” he said, “if I can't have a Buick, I'll at least have a son.”

     When I was born, he very quickly saw that I was a scrawny, squally baby girl. I was not a Buick, and I was not his son.

3. (Britain, dialect) Interrupted by unproductive spots, as a field of turnips or grain.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

4. (weaving, of cloth) Not equally good throughout; not uniform; uneven; faulty.
   • 1763, Danby Pickering, The Statutes at Large, From the First Year of Q. Mary to the Thirty-Fifth Year of Q. Elizabeth, Volume VI, Joseph Bentham (1763), page 98:

     It is enacted, That if at any time after the first day of May, any cloth or kerſie, through the default or negligence of the carders, spinners or weavers, or any of them, shall or do prove purfy, cockly, bandy, squally or rowy by warp or woof, […]

Synonyms

• squallish

Derived terms

• squalliness