square, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

square n.

1. (US) a proper or square meal [abbr.].

[1869		F. Whymper Travel and Adventure in Alaska 310: A good substantial repast is known as a ‘square’ meal all over this coast, and the term is applied to many other things].
1874		‘A.P.’ [Arthur Pember] Mysteries and Miseries 259: One by one, the men at the stove moved away as soon as they had cooked their ‘chuck,’ as they called their bit of supper (a full meal is termed a ‘square’).
1882		in Frontier X (1930) 252/1: I went in sat down and had some dinner [...] ate a square & talked awhile & then made the rest of the way home [DA].
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 185: We’re doin’ pretty well; have our three squares a day, and all the booze we want.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 172: Generally I can worry along with three squares a day.
1913		H.A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 92: ‘Shorty,’ like the great majority of us, was a very tolerable member of society under the ordinary circumstances of having to earn his ‘three squares a day’.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 54: She’s too fond of her three squares and a few pounds of nut-centre chocolates in between.
1930		G. Milburn ‘The Great Amer. Bum’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 71: He never turns back upon his track / Until he gets a square.
1943		C. McCullers Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1986) 153: Millions of people are ready to do anything [...] just to work for three squares and flop.
1955		Petaluma Argus-Courier (CA) 15 Apr. 1/1: 52 tough convicts [...] demonstrated nearly 30 hours for ‘three squares’ a day.
1961		(con. early 1950s) J. Peacock Valhalla 181: I get three squares a day.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 135: We can’t even afford a fuckin bed and three squares at a state hospital for Clyde.
1989		A. Sorkin A Few Good Men (1990) 94: Three squares a day.
2002		Mad mag. Aug. 22: Three squares and my own cot. In my day I’d kill for that!
2010		Palm Beach Post (FL) 23 Nov. D005/1: [headline] Three squares a day? Not on caveman diet.

2. (Aus., also square gin) gin, a bottle of gin [the shape of the bottle].

1871		Melbourne Punch 12 Oct. 7/2: The toddler is also much at a loss to understand why Hollands in a quadrangular bottle should be called ‘square gin’.
1878		Sth Bourke & Mornington Jrnl 5 June 3/4: The called for two ‘gins,’ inviting the landlord to drink [...] he poured gin from a decanter for the men, and his own out of the ‘square’.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Aug. 14/1: They drank agoua and bottle beer, till at 1 a.m. the King of the Cannibal Islands called for a bottle of square gin to top up with.
[1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 10/4: As a rule, however, these effusions generally show a deal more square-bottle spirit than body].
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 7 Dec. 2/2: The wife went to the cellarette, and [...] put away a stiff nip of Hennessy, followed by three fingers of square.
1890		E. Dyson ‘Mr. and Mrs. Sin Fat’ in Golden Shanty (2003) 51: Mrs. Sin Fat would have seized the earliest opportunity of converting the bird into square gin.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Dec. 16/3: The Language of the Bush. / ‘Give us a virtuous lubra!’ / ‘A what?’ / ‘A square gin, please.’.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 31 Jan. 11/2: The ony medicine he ever took was ‘square’.
1922		E. Dyson Missing Link 🌐 Ch. xiv: He held the bottle towards Nickie the Kid. It was a bottle of square gin.
1951		E. Hill Territory 435: Next day we were ridin’ back with three bottle of square [...] he reckoned he’d been bitten by a snake, an’ the only antidote was to drink a bottle of square gin straight off.

3. (UK und.) an act of bribery, a ‘pay-off’.

1879

London Life 23 Aug. 2/2: Of course, the ‘square’ was a foregone conclusion, but why need it have ever been requisite to square anyone?

4. in fig. senses, implying gullibility, innocence, a failure to fit in with group norms [American Dialect Society (Nov. 1958) suggests the steady 1-2-3-4 rhythm played without variation].

(a) (UK Und.) a respectable pose; an excuse, thus a shield from arrest.

1865

Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 118/1: I found it a difficult matter to attempt a ‘square’ for Folkstone, who, from what had occurred, had evidently been ‘pulling the bag away’.

(b) (orig. US) in general use, a respectable working man or woman .

1933		C. Himes ‘Prison Mass’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 161: More than likely he was a ‘square’, some hard-working laborer.
1949		L. Hughes Tambourines to Glory I iii: Only squares drink ginger ale with scotch.
1953		Kramer & Karr Teen-Age Gangs 123: I try to find out a few things and you sound off like a couple of squares.
1962		(con. 1953–7) L. Yablonsky Violent Gang (1967) 281: Work is for squares.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 222: I read the Observer because I have no wish to be thought a square.
1964		‘Charles Barrett’ Address: Kings Cross 47: And the trouble with the adults and squares, mostly, is that they don’t make it their business.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 180: One of them squares out there will be done got some cop’s ear.
1974		D. Ireland Burn 124: Speak for yourself, square.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 143: Sister Kallie followed me, presumably to dig the shocked look on the big square’s face.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 4: Squares gave Rings ’n’ Things a pain in the bahakas.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 9: Don’t let the squares drag you down.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 222: The casino floor was crowded, hardly any room to move, suburban squares on the loose.

1944		H. Humes ‘I Would If I Could’ 🎵 They might satisfy a square / But I’m too hip you see.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 191: You, Miss Square from Nowhere.
1960		Elmore James ‘Fine Little Mama’ 🎵 She ain’t no square.

(d) (orig. US black) one who is lacking in sophistication or ‘cool’ as judged by the norms of a given peer group.

1943		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 27 Dec. 2/3: Don’t be a square from Delaware!
1956		‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 11: ‘Squares’ - people who weren’t really smart.
1959		A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 58: ‘You’re nothing but a square, after all?’ Stan returned scornfully.
1961		C. Himes Pinktoes (1989) 46: A five-cornered square is a square so square as to have an extra corner; a five-cornered square is a square’s square.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 170: My dad’s a square, I hate him.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: square n. [...] 2. a person who is out of step or out of the know.
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 97: It must be a secret place to keep the squares out and let the hip, fresh and chill crowds in.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 146: She did not like Window because he was such a square and because he had ambitions of graduating from high school.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] ‘Stop being such a fuckin square.’ ‘I think the expression Eddie, is: “A come down or a blank slate”.’.
2000		Guardian Guide 29 Apr.–5 May 89: It’s the rock’n’roll story of a prissy ‘square’ [...] who falls for the juvenile delinquent.

(e) (US drugs) one who eschews drugs.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 255: Sure, the Derricks were okay but they were squares. They didn’t know the score. Their idea of a good time was to go to a movie and have an ice cream soda afterward.
1958		C. Himes Real Cool Killers (1969) 32: ‘How much marijuana you got stashed there?’ ‘I don’t handle it.’ ‘Sheik, this joker’s a square.’.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 11: No ‘square’—the addict’s word for anyone who does not use drugs—can imagine the strength of heroin’s hold.
1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).

(f) (US black) a man who pursues women and is thus tricked out of his money.

1937		C. Himes ‘A Nigger’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 32: The guy is just another square. Just like all the other white squares he’d seen being debased by Negro women after their sex had gone from their bodies into their minds.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

(g) (gay) a heterosexual, or a gay man who is not used to the gay scene.

1962		Richard Hauser Homosexual Society 76: You can get some of these squares (non-homosexuals) aboard the ship when it’s hot.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 116: Did you hear the square spitting, man?
1979		Maledicta III:2 244: Heterosexuals, outsiders, jam, normals, squares, BMs (‘baby-makers,’ Cape Town), and general naph omis.

5. (US, usu. prison) a factory-made cigarette, whether prison-issue or commercially produced [square adj. (1)].

1964		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 50: She reached in her purse and pulled out a square [cigarette].
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: square n. 1. a cigarette.
1976		Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) 30 Mar. 2/3: Cigarettes are sometimes known as ‘squares.’.
1980		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 6: squares – cigarettes.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 109: Got a square, Joe?
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 223: The vagrant put his thumb and forefinger to his lips, ‘You got a square?’.

6. (US black) a sexual deviant.

1971

H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: square n. […] 3. a deviate.

7. (UK Black) a credit card.

2018

personal information.

8. (UK black/drugs) a package of a small amount of a drug prepared for retail sale.

2022

Digga D. ‘Hold It Down’ 🎵 So I'm with a ting in some council flats / Makin’ squares out of cling while she counts the racks.

In phrases

half-square (n.) (also half-squarie)

(Aus.) a sexually experienced woman, positioned in the contemporary moral spectrum between an all-out prostitute and a respectable woman; an ‘amateur’ prostitute.

1919		Truth (Brisbane) 12 Oct. 11/7: [T]he principal source of infection is not the professional prostitute, but the ostensibly respectable girl or woman popularly known as a ‘privateer,’ ‘love bird,’ or ‘half square tart’.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 79: Actually she’s a half-squarie.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 523: [...] since ca. 1920.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

square-bashing (n.) [SE square, the parade ground + bash v. (1)]

military drill, thus square-bash, to perform drill, square-basher, one who performs drill.

1941		Hartlepool Nthn Dly Mail 3 Oct. 5/2: After our quota of “square bashing * thought we had finished with real walking for a time.
1945		Dly Mirror 2 Oct. 1/5: The men objected to ‘square-bashing’.
1949		Western Dly Press 17 June 6/6: ‘I joined the ranks as a “square basher” and eventually rose to the rank of Sergeant of Education’.
1952		Dly News (NY) 24 Aug. 94/4: ‘Perishin’ square bashers,’ observed the C.Q.M.S.
1954		Western Mail 21 Oct. 3/3: [cartoon caption] The Reluctant Square-Basher.
1963		Calgary Herald (Alberta, Canada) 7 Aug. 4/3: I suspect that for generations of square-bashers the point of enjoyment came [...] with the realization that one could perform [...] without attracting the hostile [...] drill sergeant.
1964		Dly Mirror 28 Apr. 32/2: [headline] ‘Send Them [i.e. rowdy students] Square-Bashing’].
1977		G. Melly Rum, Bum and Concertina (1978) 24: We were told that [...] we would be staying at Skegness for up to five weeks more to do intensive square-bashing.
1989		Guardian 2 Sept. 18/2: Clubs were not expected to pay players who had been called up for a spot of square-bashing .
1996		Guardian (Guide) 2 Nov. 13/1: Carol Reid couble bill: his square-bashers’ training film and [etc].
1998		Eve. Herald (Dublin) 21 Jan. 1/3: Sldiers all over the world square-bash...and end up with sore feet.
1999		Guardian 27 Aug. 38/1: Square-bashing [...] Discipline, dammit, Isn’t that what today’s youngsters are supposed to be missing.
2003		(con. late 1930s) H.H. Godbold Memoirs of Two Different Soldiers 39: He spent the first three days at Carchington [sic] in Bedford getting kitted out with his uniform. [...] From there to Skegness, and eight weeks’ square-bashing, which they did up and down the seafront.

square one (n.) [the image of children’s board-games, e.g. snakes and ladders]

(orig. US) the starting point, the beginning.

1960		Times 21 May 9/2: As far as building up a basis for profitable negotiations is concerned the two sides are back in square one.
1967		N.Y. Times 18 June 4:1: The dilemma for the Kremlin is [...] thrown back to square one.
1971		Aberdeen Press 2 Apr. 22/9: The letter ‘put the situation right back to square one’.
1981		S. Berkoff Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 37: You may lose him and start at square one again.
1998		Sun. Trib. (Dublin) 18 Oct. 16/3: [picture caption] Katherine Zappone is taking the women’s movement back to square one.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 10: He worked there for a spell too – back to square one.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 184: Back to square one [...] Searching endlessly for a book.

In phrases

catch a square (v.) [the corners in a boxing ring]

(US prison) to prepare for a fight.

2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Catch a Square: To get ready to fight, as ‘You’d better catch a square, punk’.
2006		Prison Slang Mommyblogger mydogharriet.blogspot.com 2 Mar. 🌐 Catch a square and get ready to re-claim your clavo because this asshole’s about to get flat-weeded.

in the square

(US) in the respectable world.

1963

in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 18: Other dumb buggers hung around and now they’re stuck in the square.

square in a social circle (n.) [var. on SE square peg in a round hole]

(US black) a misfit.

1945		[song title] I’m just a square in a social circle.
1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl.

squares in their chairs (n.)

(US black) the members of Congress.

1941

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 21 June 13: I trilled up to the Mighty Dome [...] to lay my glims on the Squares in Their Chairs.

square the dink (n.)

(Aus.) a steady girlfriend; also used adj.

1914		Sport (Adelaide) 22 May 4/5: Roy M and Jimmy G go to Wallaroo every week-end. They must have a couple of square the dinks down there .
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 5 June 4/5: Walter N. reckons he is ‘square the dink’ with L.C .

take it to the square (v.) [a square boxing ring]

(US prison) to call out to have a fight.

2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Taking it to the Square: To call out for a fight. (TX).
2006		Prison Slang Mommyblogger mydogharriet.blogspot.com 2 Mar. 🌐 Take it to the square if you need to. Make him bitch up. Don’t be afraid to be a toosh-hog.