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: English, Sex & Sexuality, Slang

Etymological Note: There is inconclusive evidence this term may have originated among practitioners of sexual bondage or sadomasochism.

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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.

Posted 23 Jun 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

Unlike some near synonyms, “squick” does not suggest that the activity in question is morally objectionable or that the disgust is universal—merely that it is decidedly not to the squicked person’s taste.

(Bad porn squicks me. Rapists disgust me.)

by Oedipus McGillicuddy 11 Jan 09, 0512 GMT

What squicks me is the idea that there is not a REASON for disgust. No, it doesn’t squick me, it disgusts me. There are right and wrong actions, and to ignore the morality or immorality (yeah, I know; many of you think it’s a dated concept) of a certain action, just because it “feels good” to the person participating in it, denies our basic humanity and reduces us to animal level. The term “squick” is a way to attempt to get around that disgust at immorality, and it’s nothing more than a ruse.

by StavinChain 14 Mar 09, 0351 GMT

Sometimes there aren’t reasons, just personal tastes. I’m familiar with the word from fandom circles (used for a good 15 years) to describe fanfiction tastes. I fail to see how morality has anything to do with whether you prefer Spock topping Kirk or the other way around.

by Ribbon 06 Apr 09, 0832 GMT