squid

Pluralsquids, squid

Formssquids, squidding, squidded

1. 1
   sea animalnouncountable

   Any of various predatory sea cephalopods with a long body inside a mantle, eight arms, and two longer tentacles, traditionally grouped as the order Teuthida.

   The squid jetted away, leaving a cloud of ink hanging in the water behind it.

   Sperm whales dive thousands of feet to hunt giant squid.

   Note

   No one knows for certain where the name comes from. One guess is that sailors altered squirt, a fitting name for an animal that shoots out jets of water and ink. Both plurals are in use: a net full of squid, or a tank holding several squids.

2. 2
   navy sailornounslangderogatoryUScountable

   A sailor in the Navy, usually as a mildly insulting nickname.

   A couple of squids on shore leave wandered into the Army bar and started an argument.

   The gunnery sergeant joked that no squid could survive a week of real field training.

   Similarswabbie, sailor

   Note

   The American services trade nicknames, and this is the one aimed at the Navy. It is only mildly derogatory, so it usually lands as teasing between people in uniform; from an outsider, or said with an edge, it is an insult, and it has no place in formal writing about sailors.

3. 3
   reckless bikernounslangderogatorycountable

   A motorcyclist, especially on a sport bike, who rides recklessly and without proper protective gear.

   Some squid weaving through traffic in a T-shirt nearly clipped my mirror.

   Experienced riders worry that squids give every motorcyclist a bad name.

   Note

   Riders use it of other riders, as a put-down for reckless sport bikers in T-shirts and sneakers; to one rider, anyone who races on the street is a squid. The origin is uncertain: it may blend stupid and quick, and the expansion “stupid, quick, under-dressed and imminently dead” is probably a later invention fitted to the word.

4. 4
   deep-sea vampirenouncountable

   In loose use, a vampire squid, which is not a true squid.

   The submersible's lights caught a vampire squid, and the squid turned its webbed cape inside out over its body.

   For all its menacing name, the vampire squid is a gentle squid that feeds on drifting particles instead of live prey.

   Note

   The vampire squid sits in an order of its own, closer to the octopuses than to true squids, with webbed arms and thin filaments in place of hunting tentacles. Calling it a squid is fine in everyday talk, but a zoologist would not, and the full name vampire squid is the safer choice in writing.

5. 5
   fishing hooknouncountable

   A fishhook with a piece of bright lead, bone, or other material fixed to its shank so that it looks like a squid.

   Old-time fishermen trolled for bluefish with a lead squid that flashed as it moved through the water.

   He kept a box of squids, some of polished bone and some of lead, for different kinds of fish.

6. 6
   go fishingverbintransitive

   To fish with a hook made to look like a squid.

   They spent the evening squidding from the stern for the bluefish feeding over the shoals.

   Fishermen on this coast still squid for striped bass with homemade lures.

   Note

   Squidding works by flash and speed: the bright lure is pulled quickly through the water so that it looks like a darting squid, and predators such as bluefish and striped bass strike at it. The same verb can also mean fishing for squid themselves, so the context has to show which is meant.

7. 7
   parachute faultverbtransitive or intransitive

   Of a parachute, to inflate only partly, with its sides folding in toward the center and pulsing back and forth; also, to cause a parachute to inflate only partly.

   At high airspeed the reserve canopy squidded, its edges sucking inward and pulsing, before it snapped fully open.

   Opening at too high an airspeed can squid even a well-packed canopy.

   Note

   Jumpers usually say the canopy itself squids, though a fast opening can also be said to squid it. It happens when the canopy cannot fill properly, often because it opens at too high an airspeed: the skirt is pulled inward and the canopy pulses instead of spreading, giving little drag until it finally catches the air.

8. 8
   British poundnounslanghumorousUKcountable

   One pound sterling, used as a joking variant of quid.

   Tickets were going for forty squid each outside the stadium.

   He bet me a squid that the train would be late again.

   Similarquid, pound

   Note

   It twists quid, the everyday British slang for a pound, and like quid it stays the same in the plural: five squid, fifty squid. The Streets play with it on A Grand Don't Come for Free (2004), beside monkeys and scores. It is rare and jokey, a word for banter among friends rather than for prices on a sign.

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