"squint" = "narrow one's eyes" not in OED?

[Jonathan Lighter]

In my experience, beyond imagining.

Think of all those British novels I've misinterpreted!

>sigh!<

JL

On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 8:49 AM, Jesse Sheidlower <jester at panix.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "squint" = "narrow one's eyes" not in OED?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is this a BrE/AmE distinction? I'd never heard the 'to be cross-eyed'
> sense of _squint_ until reading Neal's e-mail.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>
> On Thu, Mar 03, 2011 at 08:45:38AM -0500, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > Incredible but true.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 12:11 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net
> >wrote:
> >
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> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> > > Subject:      "squint" = "narrow one's eyes" not in OED?
> > >
> > >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > The term "squinting modifier" (what I'd call a forward/backward
> attachment
> > > ambiguity) never made sense to me until I learned that "squint" can
> mean
> > > "be
> > > cross-eyed or wall-eyed, seem to look in two directions":
> > > http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/squint/
> > >
> > > More surprising is that my definition, "narrow one's eyes", isn't in
> the
> > > OED
> > > at all, as far as I can tell.
> > >
> > > Neal Whitman
> > > Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
> > > Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com
> > > Twitter: @LiteralMinded
> > >
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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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