squeak

[skweek] /skwik/
noun
1.
a short, sharp, shrill cry; a sharp, high-pitched sound.
2.
Informal. opportunity; chance:
their last squeak to correct the manuscript.
3.
an escape from defeat, danger, death, or destruction (usually qualified by narrow or close).
verb (used without object)
4.
to utter or emit a squeak or squeaky sound.
5.
Slang. to confess or turn informer; squeal.
verb (used with object)
6.
to utter or sound with a squeak or squeaks.
Verb phrases
7.
squeak by/through, to succeed, survive, pass, win, etc., by a very narrow margin:
They can barely squeak by on their income. The team managed to squeak through.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English squeken, perhaps < Scandinavian; compare Swedish skväka to croak
Related forms
squeakingly, adverb
Examples from the web for squeak
  • First there's a whirring, then a beep, then a high-pitched squeak.
  • If it uses a high-pitched squeak and you feed it, it will learn to repeat that noise to get fed.
  • Instead of producing a high squeak, for example, the engineered mice produced lower sounds.
  • Much better sound than playing it on its little squeak speaker.
  • Many bats emit a high-pitched click or squeak that you can hear.
  • Apparently, the only sound it utters is a faint squeak.
  • Listen for the high pitched squeak of the pika which makes its home in the subalpine zone.
  • Finding the cause of a squeak is often the hardest part.
  • With a third group, she activated the squeak as if by accident.
  • With their liquidity buying them some time, next year will be about squeezing the business until the pips squeak.
British Dictionary definitions for squeak

squeak

/skwiːk/
noun
1.
a short shrill cry or high-pitched sound
2.
(informal) an escape (esp in the phrases narrow squeak, near squeak)
verb
3.
to make or cause to make a squeak
4.
(intransitive; usually foll by through or by) to pass with only a narrow margin: to squeak through an examination
5.
(intransitive) (informal) to confess information about oneself or another
6.
(transitive) to utter with a squeak
Derived Forms
squeaker, noun
squeaky, adjective
squeakily, adverb
squeakiness, noun
Word Origin
C17: probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish skväka to croak
Word Origin and History for squeak
v.

late 14c., probably of imitative origin, similar to Middle Swedish skväka "to squeak, croak." Related: Squeaked; squeaking. The noun is from 1660s; sense of "narrow escape" is from 1822.

squeak in Technology
language
1.
["Squeak: A Language for Communicating with Mice", L. Cardelli et al, Comp Graphics 19(3):199-204, July 1985].
See Newsqueak.
2. A Smalltalk implementation and a media authoring tool by members of the original Xerox PARC team which created Smalltalk (Alan Kay, Dan Ingalls, et al). Squeak is an open-source implementation, with a highly portable virtual machine implemented in a subset of Smalltalk (translated into C and compiled by a C compiler of the target platform).
Squeak Home (https://squeak.org/).
SqueakCentral (https://squeakland.org/).
(2002-11-03)