Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to complain, to make a fuss.

1875		J.G. Holland Sevenoaks xvii. 239: When a man sells himself to old Belcher, he mustn’t squawk an’ try to git another feller to help ’im out of ’is bargain .
1893		R.G. Hampton Major in Wash. City 21: Their hired foreign help began to squawk.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 29: He tumbles that he’s been double-crossed an he squawked something scandalous.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 20/1: Stow it, Jerry [...]. Wot’s the use o’ squawkin’?
1917		Van Loan ‘Sanguinary Jeremiah’ in Old Man Curry 137: That’s it. Squawk before you’re hurt!
1928		R. Lardner ‘The Maysville Minstrel’ in Coll. Short Stories 1941 4: Old Townsend said the heater ate up too much gas and it would make the customers squawk. They squawked enough as it was.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 70: He squawked about dirty work being done to him.
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 69: That was the end of their squawking.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 21: Sid [...] wobbled down to the police station to squawk about how some hoodlums gave him the works and hijacked all his whiskey.
1954		J. Thompson Swell-Looking Babe 10: Those dames who worked you into making a pass and then squawked to the management.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 107: I was thirteen so now it was okay for me to hang out. Nobody squawked.
1973		P. Pender in Heller In This Corner (1974) 377: He squawked later to cover up his own inadequacies.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 3: There are, however, topics in this book to cause feminists to squirm and anti-discrimination ratbags to squawk ineffectually.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 92: I squawked and raised enough hell about the stock-building portion of the job to have it [...] assigned elsewhere.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 226: Theres an Arab squawkin in some broken lingo down his mobi with a few words poppin out every few secs.
2009		(con. 1960s) J. Ellroy Blood’s a Rover 17: Dwight squawked to the US attorney. Wayne Junior fucked up his investigation.

2. to inform, to betray.

1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 32/1: SQUAWK. To squeal; to rat.
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 202: They nabbed him on the Courtney business and he squawked.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 84: People taking your money just didn’t run off and squawk.
1938		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 26 Feb. 3/3: Well, so many got bumped off and never squawked that the coppers got tired of pinchin’ the ‘rod-men’ concerned.
1938		J. Archibald ‘Bird Cagey’ in Popular Detective Jan. [ 🌐 Oh, we’ll make him squawk [...] He’ll tell us where Drupe is, or else—.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 124: I lost my money and didn’t squawk.
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 185: It always works. That is, always until somebody has sense enough to squawk.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 66: The women from whom I borrowed the gloves had squawked her head off.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 30: ‘Lemme go or I’ll—’ ‘You’ll what? Squawk to the fuzz?’.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 97: The minute they grabbed him he squawked like a chicken.

3. to call for.

1923

H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 89: Instead of tying into me like a man, why, he squawks for a cop.