Wordinistas! Check out A Way With Words, public radio's call-in show about language.
Dictionary definition of “squick”

squick

v. to disturb, unsettle, make uneasy; to cause disgust or revulsion; to gross (someone) out; to freak (someone) out. Also noun, something which causes disgust, revulsion, or uneasiness, or the disgust, revulsion, or uneasiness itself. Also squick (someone) out. Subjects: , ,
Etymological Note: There is inconclusive evidence this term may have originated among practitioners of sexual bondage or sadomasochism.
Citations: [1991 [STella] Usenet: alt.sex.bondage (Apr. 12) “Squick was Ten good non-consensual”: There are some things too repulsive to discuss in a public forum—squicking is one of them. I’ve only been squicked once, and if someone wants me to be a squick-top, they’ll have to beg FAR more than for anything else I can think of (though it’s not clear that I _could_ bring myself _to_ squick, even consensually).] [1991 [STella] Usenet: rec.pets (May 23) “Golden Geysers”: Kit’n Hook, who was my youngest feline till we got Rhiannon, seems to think that expressing his affections to people is best done by squicking them—he comes over for affection, and if I don’t put down my book fast enough or pet him intensely enough, he starts licking, and sucking, and licking, and licking, and while, in certain contexts (see alt.sex.bondage for more info) I quite enjoy being tickled, stimulated, and otherwise driven crazy) I simply cannot DEAL with being abraded by a cat.] 1991 [STella] Usenet: alt.sex.bondage (June 17) “Squicking Resux”: More generally, squicking is “that which the bottom cannot endure, whether at that time or in general.” Whatever gets a safeword, is squicking. 1991 [Richard Chandler] Usenet: alt.sex.bondage (Oct. 25) “Re: fear of anger”: What I do in the scene I do because it turns me on, or, because it’s something that turns my partner on and doesn’t squick me. 1992 [Laura Potler] Usenet: alt.peeves (Aug. 7) “Re: Random Peeve”: I’ve seen it used as “what tom and ned did with that gopher really squicked me”. 1994 Kristin Tillotson Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minn.) (Sept. 11) “No Holes Barred” p. 1E: Don’t get squicked (freaked out). 1996 [Twitch] Usenet: soc.singles (Jan. 27) “Re: Gorgeous women: flesh and peectures”: My squick, I should point out, wasn’t a directly personal one (as in, “Oh no, is that evil, nasty man entertaining naughty thoughts about poor, pristine little *me*?").…The squick came more from the idea that this is now a perfectly acceptable way to treat others. 1997 Midnight Writer Usenet: soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm (Dec. 16) “Re: The new 128 Basic slave Rules are finally released!”: If I *really* wanted to get over my squick about, oh, Wonder Bread—and found a dom who was interested in such a scene, and agreed to a no-safeword scene in which I’d be force-fed Wonder Bread until I’d eaten twelve loaves, and decided half-way through that this was *really* too much. 2000 Internet Complete (Aug.) “Internet Dictionary” p. 931: Squick (v) To exceed someone’s threshold for violent or tasteless imagery. 2001 Jon Carroll San Francisco Chronicle (California) (Jan. 23) “Thinking Seriously About Latex” p. FP: I do hate moralizing about people’s private lives. I say that because I am about to do that, sort of, and I acknowledge in front the large squick factor. 2002 Andrew Vachss Only Child (Oct. 8) p. 171: There’s all that “upskirt” squick, too.…Little perverts walking around with minicams in their briefcases. 2003 Kevin Bentley Boyfriends from Hell (Jan. 1) p. 128: Clearly, doing a diaper scene with a young boy on crack doesn’t qualify as “safe,” at least not in the minds of normal people. Maybe it even squicks you. 2004 Mistress Matisse (July 4) @ The Mammoth Book of Sex Diaries (Mar. 12, 2005) Maxim Jakubowski p. 27: If you squick easily, you should skip this next paragraph. A sound is a medical instrument, a long slender metal rod that’s designed to be inserted into the male urethra. 2005 [agregoli] Ask Metafilter (June 22) “How do you know you can mentally deal with pregnancy?”: I worry that I’ll get pregnant and then be so squicked out from having another being moving around in my body that I’ll go crazy.

Leave a comment (must be approved by the moderator before it will appear).

Name (mandatory):

Email (mandatory):

Location (optional):

Your Web Site (optional):

Remember my personal information

Notify me, by email, of follow-up comments.

Recent Catchwords
fertigation n. (9/4)
lobbocracy n. (9/4)
quiet title n. (9/3)
plankowner n. (9/2)
zapper n. (9/2)
twiller n. (8/31)
Mottness n. (8/31)
hubba n. (8/31)
hole doping n. (8/29)
foot drop n. (8/29)
turabosis n. (8/28)
relokill n. (8/27)
toothpick rule n. (8/27)
age-doping n. (8/27)
narcisurfing n. (8/27)
LPU n. (8/27)
 More catchwords...
New Comments
ANN commented on featherwood (9/5)
John commented on peanut buttering (9/3)
speedwell commented on mugu (9/3)
adaku opara commented on Truman Show delusion (9/3)
Andrew commented on robotripping (8/29)
Russell commented on fourth point of contact (8/28)
ill-uSHEN commented on backpacker (8/28)
Kenny S commented on anchor baby (8/28)
Kortney commented on defac (8/26)
Melanie Parrish commented on Mortarville (8/26)
Melanie Parrish commented on Mortarville (8/25)
Michael Orabona commented on robotripping (8/25)
MarthaK commented on haji (8/25)
Charles Miller commented on robotripping (8/24)
Andrew commented on robotripping (8/24)
Subscribe to the RSS feed.Subscribe to the mailing list.Browse the archive.Add to Technorati Favorites. © 1999-2008 by Grant Barrett, Double-Tongued Dictionary, New York City.