Asquint

adv. (and a.) Forms: 3– asquint, 4 a squynte, 5 asquynt, 7 a squint. [Of uncertain origin; apparently f. A prep.¹ and a word corresponding to Du. schuinte ‘slope, slant,’ of the independent use of which no instances survive; the later squint adv. and adj. being an aphetic form of asquint, and squint vb. and sb. still later derivatives of this. Evidence is wanting to determine whether the original word was actually adopted from Dutch, or was a cognate word, unrecorded in OE.; the total absence of any related words in OE. (or ON.) makes the latter improbable.]

  I.  With look or a synonymous verb.

  i.  Of voluntary turning of the eyes.

  1.  (To look) to one side instead of straightforward; obliquely, out at the corners of the eyes.

a. 1230.  Ancr. R., 212. Auh winckeð oðere half, & biholdeð o luft & asquint.

1594.  Blundevil, Exerc., V. 560. Looking somewhat asquint.

1611.  Dekker, Roar. Girle, Wks. 1873, III. 200. Didst neuer see an archer … looke a squint when he drew his bow?

1679.  Everard, Pop. Plot, 11. Who looking on me asquint, went down the Privy Stairs.

1822.  Hazlitt, Table T., I. x. 217. He does not survey the objects of nature as they are in themselves, but lookes asquint at them.

  b.  transf. of things.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. vii. 168. Let not the front look asquint on a stranger, but accost him right at his entrance.

1657.  B. I., Heroic Educ., in N. & Q., 19 June 1880, 492. Sweden is a country on which the sun does not look asquint.

  c.  fig. of mental vision.

1601.  Cornwallyes, Ess., II. xxviii. To look a squint, our hand looking one way and our heart another.

1639.  Saltmarsh, Pract. Policie, 81. Be not too fixt nor intent upon what is before you … but looke asquint into your considerations and about you.

  2.  With reference to various mental attitudes, of which averted, oblique, sidelong or furtive glances are the outward expression: arch. (To look)

  a.  with distrust, suspicion; jealously, askance.

1413.  Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, II. xlv. 51. Thou somtyme ar this mettist with enuye, that loked asquynt.

1670.  Cotton, Espernon, II. VI. 252. The envy of many of the greatest men … who had long look’d a squint upon the Duke’s Prosperity.

1729.  Savage, Wanderer, III. 229. Envy asquint the future wonder eyes.

  b.  with unfairness, with prejudice or partiality.

1605.  B. Jonson, Volp., Ded. Men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the Office and Function of a Poet.

1655.  Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., I. 376. O Sirs, do we think that Christ’s love looks asquint? doth he pray for one child more than another?

  c.  with an eye drawn aside by interest.

1627.  Sanderson, Serm., I. 270. His heart even then hankered after the wages of unrighteousness when he looked asquint upon Balaaks liberal offer.

1678.  Trial Coleman, in Howell, St. Trials (1816), VII. 12. He had a little too much eye to the reward; he looked too much a-squint upon the matter of money.

  d.  with furtive or stolen glances.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XIX. 82. In ambush here to lurk by night, Into the woman-state asquint to pry.

1845.  Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), III. 228. Peering asquint into the Holy of Holies.

  † 3.  To cast a passing glance; fig. to make incidental reference. Obs.

a. 1638.  Mede, Apost. Later Times (1641), 33. [Nothing] may so much as look asquint upon any other object, or behold any other face but the face of God alone.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., xxii. 250. Others … have lookt asquint upon the Body of Woman.

  † b.  fig. To glance unfavorably or adversely; to reflect unfavorably upon. Obs.

1658.  Osborn, Adv. to Son (1673), 239. Uncharitable Censures … against any judgement looking a squint upon theirs.

  II.  Of habitual obliquity of vision.

  4.  esp. (To look) obliquely through defect in the eyes, to have the axes of the eyes not coincident, so that they look in different directions; to squint.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VI. iv. (1495), 191. A place that is to bryghte … ofte makyth chyldren to loke a squynte.

1540.  Raynald, Birth Man, III. iii. (1634), 185. Of Goggle-eyes, or looking a-squint.

1657.  Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 20. His other eye look’d so asquint, That it was hard to ward his dint.

1675.  Hobbes, Homer, 21. Lame of one leg he was; and looked asquint.

1763.  Churchill, Rosciad, Poems (1769), I. 20. Doth a man stutter, look a-squint, or halt?

a. 1849.  Poe, Loss of Breath, Wks. 1864, IV. 305. The looking asquint—the showing my teeth.

  b.  fig. and transf. of things.

c. 1744.  Swift, Wks., 1841, II. 73. Rather than suffer his learning to look asquint as it does, and make so frightful a figure from the press.

1881.  Blackie, Lay Serm., i. 31. The beer-toper … finding the moon looking somewhat asquint, the houses all nodding.

  c.  fig. of mental vision: (To look) awry, so as to miss seeing or see distortedly.

1616.  W. Forde, Serm., 35. If old, wee looke a squint, and see not death before our eyes.

1643.  Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., 7. Those vulgar heads that look asquint on the face of Truth.

  II.  With other verbs. rare.

  5.  Off to one side; obliquely. ? Obs.

1645.  Milton, Tetrach., Wks. 1851, 203. Whether is common sense flown asquint.

1651.  Cleveland, Rupertismus, 13, in Wks. (1687), 50.

  B.  quasi-adj. (Only in pred. or after the sb. eye.)

1643.  Answ. W. Bridges’ Observ. War, 1. As if every eye were asquint.

c. 1661.  Argyle’s Last Will, in Harl. Misc. (1746), VIII. 29/1. His Eyes very much a-squint, so that he was nicknamed, in Scotland, Gleed Argyle.

a. 1764.  R. Lloyd, Prog. Envy, Wks. 1774, I. 139. A ghastly grin and eyes asquint.

1878.  Emerson, Ess., Ser. I. iv. 126. The eye is muddy and sometimes asquint.