Find the word definition

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Squally

Squally \Squall"y\ (-[y^]), a.

  1. Abounding with squalls; disturbed often with sudden and violent gusts of wind; gusty; as, squally weather.

  2. (Agric.) Interrupted by unproductive spots; -- said of a field of turnips or grain. [Prov. Eng.]
    --Halliwell.

  3. (Weaving) Not equally good throughout; not uniform; uneven; faulty; -- said of cloth.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
squally

1719, from squall + -y (2).

Wiktionary
squally

a. 1 Characterized by squalls, or sudden violent bursts of wind; gusty. 2 Producing or characteristic of loud wails. 3 (context UK dialect English) Interrupted by unproductive spots, as a field of turnips or grain. 4 (context weaving of cloth English) Not equally good throughout; not uniform; uneven; faulty.

WordNet
squally
  1. adj. characterized by short periods of noisy commotion; "a home life that has been extraordinarily squally" [syn: squalling]

  2. characterized by brief periods of violent wind or rain; "a gray squally morning"

Usage examples of "squally".

The weather had changed: there were squally showers and it had turned cold.

And began to call them all by name: As fast as they called the cats, they came There was bob-tailed Tommy and long-tailed Tim, And wall-eyed Jacky and green-eyed Jim, And splay-foot Benny and slim-legged Beau, And Skinny and Squally, and Jerry and Joe, And many another that came at call, It would take too long to count them all.

It was rather squally times, but any port in a storm: we took the negro that night on the bank of a creek which runs by the farm of our friend, and Crenshaw shot him through the head.

The morning had broken gray and squally, with frequent sharp showers, and had grown into a gurly gusty day.

After knocking about the sea for eight squally, rainy days, most of the time hove to, I succeeded in catching a partial observation of the sun at midday.

James was driven back from Portland on the Channel coast, huddled, drifting in and out of sleep in the back of the military car while the driver went through squally rain on the road to London.

Faster and faster, nearer and nearer we sailed to Australia in cold, squally weather.

The passengers were lowered over the side into an open pilot boat and in squally rain and the roar of heaving waves, with everyone soaked to the skin, they made for shore.

The unmentioned fact was that Jack had taken a little flier in Oshkosh, and a hint from Henderson one evening at the Union, when the venture looked squally, had let him out of a heavy loss into a small profit, and Jack felt grateful.

All the world knew that Crawfords funds were at the disposal of the bank, and that two or three months before, when things were looking squally, he had come most generously to the rescue.

That she was desperately anxious to see him he knew, for she had come down from Rome to Cumae at a time of year when the seaside was squally and bitter, and Rome the most comfortable place to be.

It was a rainy, squally day, which grew wilder as it progressed, so it was by no means the weather in which anyone would travel who was not driven to do so by necessity.

It came to pass that when Wylo was not tracing his favourite seascape he was either flirting or engaged in the squally pastime of fighting an aggrieved husband or scandalised lover.

Then his eyes were caught by the circles of destruction, so hideously apparent from the air, interspersed with untouched swaths where squally rain had drowned the Thread before it could reach the surface.