verb. (old colloquial).—To crush. As subs. = a flattening out; SPIFLICATION (q.v.).
1827. SCOTT, Diary, 17 Jan. His satire … SQUABASHED at one blow, a set of coxcombs who might have humbugged the world long enough.
1830. Intelligencer, 11 April. Compared with the sarcastic irony which SQUABASHES poor Mr. Nicholas Carlisle.
1833. Morning Advertiser, 1 July. A SQUABASH of the growing incumbrance of chivalrous novels.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (The House-Warming).
| Nor ever struck Harry the Sixth, who, instead | |
| Of being SQUABASHED, as in Shakspeare we ’ve read, | |
| Caught a bad influenza, and died in his bed. |
