squarer

Pluralsquarers

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative of square.

   His jaw was squarer than his younger brother's.

   The remodeled garden was noticeably squarer than the irregular plot beside it.

   Note

   The -er here is the comparative ending, not the agent ending that makes the noun for one who squares. The two words share a spelling and a root but belong to different parts of speech. The comparative fits the senses of square that admit degrees, such as a squarer jaw or a squarer deal. The square of unit names, as in square meter, takes no comparison at all.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person or thing that squares something, making it square or setting it at true right angles.

   The old squarer in the workshop trued every frame before it was assembled.

   A mechanical squarer cut each panel to exact right angles in a single pass.

3. 3
   nounobsolete

   A person given to quarreling or wrangling, always ready to dispute or pick a fight.

   Like someone who treats every conversation as a contest to be won by force.

   The innkeeper threw the squarer out before his temper could start a brawl.

   But, I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer now that will make a voyage with him to the devil?

   1598, William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”

   Note

   A word for the hothead that English has since let go. It is built from square plus the agent suffix -er, naming someone who squares in the combative sense. Shakespeare's Much Adoe about Nothing (1598–1599) asks whether there is "no young squarer" to keep a troublemaker company. Today it belongs only in period pastiche, because a modern reader will hear the comparative "more square" unless the quarrel is plain from context.

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