squabness

English

Etymology

From squab +‎ -ness.

Noun

squabness (uncountable)

1. The quality of being like a squab
   • 1866, Mary Brotherton, “Karl's First Love”, in Temple Bar, volume 18, Richard Bentley, page 271:

     One is a gifted maiden poetess (I am certain she is a gifted maiden poetess), whose squabness of contour, sharpness and redness of nose, and general forty-fiveness of aspect, a little mars the romantic effect of the oleanders which she loves to stick in her hair.

   • 1891, "Critical Notices", The Calcutta Review, volume 183, Thomas S. Smith, page v

     Squabness appear to be the special characteristic of early Hindu architecture; and it had affinities for the grotesque.

   • 1922, Arthur Machen, Far Off Things, Martin Secker, page 43:

     I suspect it was the oddity of the shape, the extreme squabness of the volume, that first took my fancy, and then I open the pages--and I have never really closed them.