Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) the mouth.

1882

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 Sept. 3/2: Lug out the prima donna and let her open her squawk.

2. (US) a complaint.

1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 23: [T]he squawk of a first-past guy that gets trimmed again his own graft ’d make the music of a come-on’s belch sound like a opery overture played by a Dutch street band.
1909		C.B. Chrysler White Slavery 70: ‘Snatchin’ simps’ is good enough for little Willie, there is no ‘fall,’ no squawk [...] no ‘dick’ has anything on you.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 79: squawk [...] A protest; a vociferous demonstration, as an indignant repudiation of an injustice [...] ‘If you don’t put up a squawk they’ll trim you.’.
1920		A. Baer Building Material 17 Sept. [synd. col.] Contractors are making more squawk over one brick than the boys did over the entire Tower of Babel.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 180: Squawker.–A dissatisfied customer, or one who, having been defrauded, makes a ‘squawk’ or complaint, either to the person responsible for the fraud or to the police.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 55: Nick him for the paltriest sum and he lets out a squawk you can hear at Land’s End.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 292: He was after the suckers money, and he got it as quickly as possible, and let the squawks fall where they might.
1944		E.S. Gardner Case of the Crooked Candle (1958) 93: He wondered if that was the time the captain had been facing a grand jury investigation over the squawk the woman had made who ran that house.
1953		W. Fisher Waiters 69: You got no squawk coming—you’re gettin’ all the gravy.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 819: squawker – A dissatisfied customer; or one who, having been defrauded makes a ‘squawk’ or complaint.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 228: I got no squawk with you, man.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 18: I done all right with the fair sex. I got no squawks in that department.
1980		(con. 1971) W. Sherman Times Square 54: They didn’t answer the everyday ‘squawks,’ the complaints of muggings and assaults.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 76: [They] both knew they’d been lumbered fair and square [...] Harold let out a token squawk.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 27: A domestic squawk.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 280: Any squawk and the perp got a discon and an arrest.

3. (US) noisy speech or singing.

1914

Hoban Jerry on the Job 28 Apr. [synd. cartoon strip] Hey — turn off that squawk [i.e. a song] — it’s worse’n a pig under a gate .

4. a verbal betrayal.

1926		Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 14/1: Squawk – A tip off to the police.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 134: Some Law got to pumping him and he [...] let out that kind of a squawk.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 133: He pooled me, and I haven’t forgotten, see? And if there’s another squawk outa him I’ll pull him outa bed.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 206/1: Squawk, n. 1. A confession, especially one implicating accomplices; the act of testifying against one’s accomplices [...] 2. A betrayal of one’s fellow convicts to prison authorities.
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 48: ‘Has he been around?’ ‘No squawks on him.’.

5. (US) gossip, rumour.

1927

W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 26 Mar. [synd. col.] The squawk also states that it wasn’t a mine disaster which occasioned the effusion but the Johnstown Flood!

6. (US) a complainer.

1933		N. West Miss Lonelyhearts in Coll. Works (1975) 248: ‘Life,’ you say, ‘is a club where they won’t stand for squawks.’.
1949		G.G. Carlson ‘Argot of Number Gambling’ in AS XXIV:3 190: The word squawk, which in the argot of the gambler refers to any individual who fails to hit and returns to the confidence man for his money, has come to refer to one who is in the habit of making a commotion over small matters.
1953		L. Uris Battle Cry (1964) 419: No squawks, good bunch.

7. (UK prison) any form of petition, to the governor or to the Home Secretary.

1950

P. Tempest Lag’s Lex. 199: squawk. A petition. Sometimes refers to an appeal.

8. (US black) a comment.

1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 4: All the cats are sounding their righteous squawks about their ‘hip boots’ laced in place, high and fly and too wet to dry.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 160: The messages they would flash ranged from corny propaganda [...] to motivational pep squawk.

9. (US black) a radio.

1942

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 3 Oct. 16: [C]ertain spiels I latch onto each dim over the squawkbox.

10. (US police) a radio report of a crime.

2023

(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 7: [of a police department] The strip is county turf. The L.A. Sheriff’s caught the squawk.