squint

From earlier asquint (“obliquely; with a sidelong glance”, adverb), probably from a- +‎ a word related to Dutch schuinte (“slant; slope”), West Frisian skean (“oblique; sloping; slanting”).

• IPA^(key): /skwɪnt/
• Rhymes: -ɪnt

squint (third-person singular simple present squints, present participle squinting, simple past and past participle squinted)

1. (intransitive) To look with the eyes partly closed, as in bright sunlight, or as a threatening expression.

   The children squinted to frighten each other.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.

2. (intransitive) To look or glance sideways.
3. (intransitive) To look with, or have eyes that are turned in different directions; to suffer from strabismus.
4. (intransitive, figuratively) To have an indirect bearing, reference, or implication; to have an allusion to, or inclination towards, something.
   • The Forum

     Yet if the following sentence means anything, it is a squinting toward hypnotism.

5. (intransitive, Scotland) To be not quite straight, off-centred; to deviate from a true line; to run obliquely.
6. (transitive) To turn to an oblique position; to direct obliquely.

   to squint an eye

• skelly

squint (plural squints)

1. An expression in which the eyes are partly closed.
2. The look of eyes which are turned in different directions, as in strabismus.

   He looks handsome although he's got a slight squint.

3. A quick or sideways glance.
4. A short look.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[[Episode 12: The Cyclops]]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483:

     —And here she is, says Alf, that was giggling over the Police Gazette with Terry on the counter, in all her warpaint.
     —Give us a squint at her, says I.

5. A hagioscope.
6. (radio transmission) The angle by which the transmission signal is offset from the normal of a phased array antenna.

squint

1. Looking obliquely; having the vision distorted.
2. (Scotland) askew, not level

• cross-eyed

• quints