square
(skweəʳ )
Word forms: squares , squaring , squared
1. countable noun A2
A square is a shape with four sides that are all the same length and four corners that are all right angles.
Serve the cake warm or at room temperature, cut in squares.
There was a calendar on the wall, with large squares around the dates.
Most of the rugs are simple cotton squares.
2. countable noun A2
In a town or city, a square is a flat open place, often in the shape of a square.
The house is located in one of Pimlico's prettiest garden squares.
The town centre is thick with churches and cafe-lined squares.
...St Mark's Square.
Synonyms: town square, close, quad, market square
3. adjective [usually ADJECTIVE noun] A2
Something that is square has a shape the same as a square or similar to a square.
Round tables seat more people in the same space as a square table.
His finger nails were square and cut neatly across.
Synonyms: straight, rectangular, oblong, at right angles
4. adjective [ADJECTIVE noun]
Square is used before units of length when referring to the area of something. For example, if something is three metres long and two metres wide, its area is six square metres.
Canary Wharf was set to provide 10 million square feet of office space.
The Philippines has just 6,000 square kilometres of forest left.
5. adjective
Square is used after units of length when you are giving the length of each side of something that is square in shape.
...a linen cushion cover, 45 cm square.
...two pieces of wood 4 inches square.
6. verb
To square a number means to multiply it by itself. For example, 3 squared is 3 x 3, or 9. 3 squared is usually written as 3².
Take the time in seconds, square it, and multiply by 5.12. [VERB noun]
A squared plus B squared equals C squared. [VERB-ed]
7. countable noun [usually with poss]
The square of a number is the number produced when you multiply that number by itself. For example, the square of 3 is 9.
...the square of the speed of light, an exceedingly large number.
8. verb
If you square two different ideas or actions with each other or if they square with each other, they fit or match each other.
That explanation squares with the facts, doesn't it? [VERB + with]
He set out to square his dreams with reality. [VERB noun + with]
9. verb
If you square something with someone, you ask their permission or check with them that what you are doing is acceptable to them.
I squared it with Dan, who said it was all right. [VERB noun with noun]
She should have squared things with Jay before she went into this business with Walker. [VERB noun + with]
10. See also squared, squarely
11. square the circle phrase
If you say that someone squares the circle, you mean that they bring together two things which are normally thought to be so different that they cannot exist together.
He has squared the circle of keeping the City happy and doing something to improve business cash flow.
'Nirvana' squared the circle by making a record that was pop and rock at the same time.
12. back to square one phrase
If you are back to square one, you have to start dealing with something from the beginning again because the way you were dealing with it has failed.
If your complaint is not upheld, you may feel you are back to square one.
We got a phone call from the lawyers and it was back to square one.
13. a square peg in a round hole phrase
If you describe someone as a square peg in a round hole, you mean that they are completely unsuitable for the job they are doing or the situation they are in.
Taylor is clearly the wrong man for the job–a square peg in a round hole.
14. fair and square phrase
If you say that someone won a competition fair and square, you mean that they won honestly and without cheating.
There are no excuses. We were beaten fair and square.
Synonyms: honestly, straight, legally, on the level [informal]
Phrasal verbs:
square away
phrasal verb [Also VERB noun PARTICLE]
If you square something or someone away, you deal with them so that the situation is satisfactory. [US]
Negotiators have already squared away a lot of the agreements that will be signed at the Earth Summit. [VERB PARTICLE noun (not pronoun)]
square off
1. phrasal verb [Also VERB PARTICLE noun]
If you square something off, you alter it so that it has the shape of a square.
Peel a thick-skinned orange and square off the ends with a sharp knife. [VERB PARTICLE noun]
...white modern buildings that look like squared-off wedding cakes. [VERB-ed PARTICLE]
2. phrasal verb
If one group or person squares off against or with another, they prepare to fight them. [mainly US]
In Florida, farmers are squaring off against cities for rights to groundwater. [V P against]
French soldiers squared off with a gunman at a road checkpoint. [V P with]
The two teams square off for the first game of the series. [plural-noun VERB PARTICLE]
square up
phrasal verb
If you square up to a problem, person, or situation, you accept that you have to deal with them and take action to do so.
The world's most prestigious insurance company was last night squaring up to take on MPs who have accused it of being riddled with corruption. [VERB PARTICLE]
...a woman squaring up to the deepest crisis she has yet had to face. [V P to n]
Image of square
© vvoe, Shutterstock
Idioms:
fair and square
honestly and without cheating or lying
This might start further accusations, but we don't care any more. We won fair and square.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
square the circle
to try to solve a problem that seems to be impossible to solve
All have the same hope: that foreign markets and, especially, foreign investment will somehow provide enough jobs to square the circle.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
a square peg in a round hole
someone who is in a situation or is doing a task that does not suit them at all
Taylor is clearly the wrong man for the job – a square peg in a round hole.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
be back to square one
to have failed completely in what you were trying to do, so that now you have to start again
So we are back to square one. Their costly intervention has been for nothing, a carefully-constructed peace process lies in ruins.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
on the square [mainly US]
honest
Are you sure this guy's on the square?
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
a square meal
a large, filling, nutritious meal
The troops are very tired. They haven't had a square meal for four or five days.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Collocations:
square edge square tower surround a square town square village square
Eventually, manufacturers went to a micro groove, and now have developed a virtually square edge finish that gives the same results as an unfinished floor installation.
Globe and Mail
The house has square edge weatherboarding and a tall lateral gable roof with a half-moon louvered vent in each gable end.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It loses a lot of the blunt, square edges of the current vehicle and replaces them with curvier lines and wraparound front and rear screens.
The Sun
Look out for things from nature: the weirder their shape, the better, offering a welcome break from square edges and solid surfaces.
Times,Sunday Times
These wheels usually feature square edges for more traction around corners or in carves.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The three-bedroom property takes its name from the four-storey square tower; it was originally two dwellings, but has since been united.
Times, Sunday Times
It has a hipped roof and a four-story square tower on the front facade.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The front of the building possessed a four-story, square tower topped by a mansard roof with an iron balcony on the third floor.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It features a massive four stage, square tower engaged in the front facade.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The engine house and chimney have been demolished and replaced by a square tower.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Soldiers stood on their desert camouflage tanks surrounding the square and watched benignly, chatting and fraternising with the crowds.
Times, Sunday Times
By the early hours troops had surrounded the square.
Times, Sunday Times
The streets surrounding the square were lined with police vans and water cannon.
Times, Sunday Times
The excavation has also revealed a central temple structure with cells surrounding a square courtyard.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The main commercial center of the city surrounds the square.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
I think that he meant a symbolic town square, because he galloped on to the usual promises about the health service.
Times, Sunday Times
The lively side of the town can be seen around the town square, flanked, of course, by fascinating architecture.
Times, Sunday Times
The town square and gardens at one end of the market have undergone major refurbishment, as has the previously grim bus station.
Times, Sunday Times
The greatest cheers and applause were saved for those few veterans able to march into the town square for a service of remembrance.
Times, Sunday Times
These mirrors are computer-controlled to track the sunlight and beam the rays down below on to a patch of the town square.
Times,Sunday Times
The horsebox took ages to get through the crowded village square.
The Sun
Tributes were yesterday attached to the railings around the war memorial in the village square, laced with yellow ribbons.
The Sun
For families, evenings cluster around the 'village square'.
Times, Sunday Times
It began, as the best days should, on a village square in the shade of a massive plane tree.
Times, Sunday Times
Eventually shops, restaurants and cafés will surround a 'village square', and residents will have a car club, nursery, play areas and an ice-rink.
Times, Sunday Times
Translations:
Chinese: 方形的, 正方形, 乘二次方
Japanese: 正方形の, 正方形, 2乗する
- give someone the runaround
- give someone the silent treatment
- give someone the third degree
- give someone to understand
- give something a whirl
- give something or someone the once-over
- give something the thumbs down
- give something the thumbs up
- give something your best shot
- give something your best shot
- give so the bird
- give sth a miss
- give sth a rest
- give sth a wide berth
- give sth a wide berth
- give support
- give thanks
- give the appearance of
- give the game away
- give the go-ahead
- give the impression
- give the lie to
- give the nod
- give the nod/give sb the nod
- give the order