d.1718. Penn, 'To his Wife and Children' [Century]. Keep upon the square, for God sees you.
1726. Vanbrugh, Provoked Husband, v. 1. Marriage is at worst but playing upon the square.
1782. Cowper, Charity, 559. No works shall find acceptance in that day That squares not truly with the Scripture plan.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Square. All fair, upright and honest practices are called the square, in opposition to the cross. A . . . person who is considered by the world to be honest, and who is unacquainted with family people, and their system of operation, is by the latter emphatically styled a square cove; whereas an old thief who has acquired an independance, and now confines himself to square practices is called, by his old pals, a flash cove who has tyed up prigging.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 86. I never split hairs, but deal upon the square.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Square . . . Anything you have bought, or acquired honestly, is termed a square article; and any transaction which is fairly and equitably conducted, is said to be a square concern.
1826-9. Oliver, Signs and Symbols, 190. You must keep within the compass, and act upon the square with all mankind, for your masonry is but a dead letter if you do not habitually perform its reiterated injunctions.
1864. Browne, Artemus Ward Among the Mormons [Works (1899), 231]. That was the squarest meal on the road except at Weber. Ibid., 288. A good square, lively fite.
1866. Eliot, Felix Holt, xx. If a man's got a bit of property . . . he'll want to keep things square. Ibid. (1866), xxi. 'Was the marriage all right then?' 'Oh, all on the square—civil marriage, church—everything.
1866. London Miscellany, 3 Mar., 57. We don't want no one took in that's on the square. The governor's promised the school as stranger's shan't use the house.
1869. McClure, Rocky Mountains, 30. The transition from the luxurious tables of the East to the square meals of the West is fortunately gradual.
1885. Field, 3 Oct. James again brought matters square on the fifth. Ibid. (1886), 25 Sep. Mr. Laidlay won with six, and squared matters.
1886. D. Tel., 17 Feb., 5. The question will now come squarely before the House.
1887. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip. Suppose you try a different tack, And on the square you flash your flag.
1896. Lillard, Poker Stories, 240. The games played there were not what are known as square games.
1900. Flynt, Tramps, 278. But I've given many a lad a ride, and I'm always willing to be square to a square plug (fellow).
1901. Walker, In the Blood, 106. His square-clobber or respectable clothes. Ibid., 259. I don't call it actin' on the square to Susie.
3. (colloquial).—To bribe; to pay. Thus to square matters = to pay off: also to square the yards (nautical); to square up = to settle a bill.
1835. Dana, Before the Mast, xxvi. Many a delay and vexation . . . did he get to pay up the old scores, or 'square the yards with the bloody quill-driver.'
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, iii. 2. There will be enough to pay all our debts and pay us all square.
1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, xi. The horses he had 'nobbled,' the jockeys squared, the owners 'hocussed.'
1879. Huxley [Pop. Sci. Monthly, xxxv. 609]. How D was squared, and what he got in . . . these transactions does not appear.
1886. Globe, 10 Mar. They have squandered enormous sums of money in squaring a huge army of committee men, collectors, and other hangers-on.
1893. Emerson, Lippo, v. To show you mean it stand a couple of shants of bevarly to square the boys.
4. (colloquial).—To assume a rigid or set attitude: as to square one's shoulders = (1) to stand (or sit) bolt upright, and (2) to show disgust; to square one's elbows = to give free play in driving (Bee); to sit square = to sit straight; to square out = to lay out; to square round = to make room.
