Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang A source of psychological discomfort.
  • verb slang, transitive To gross out, to disgust.
  • verb slang, intransitive To be grossed out, to experience disgust.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Believed to have originated as an onomatopoeia in the Usenet newsgroup alt.sex.bondage. Popularized primarily in the newsgroup alt.tasteless.

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Examples

  • The entire purpose of the term squick (at least within the a.s.b community where I first encountered it) is to distinguish a non-judgemental repulsion (a squick) from a judgemental repulsion.

    Little Miss Hooters Contest 2004

  • The entire purpose of the term squick (at least within the a.s.b community where I first encountered it) is to distinguish a non-judgemental repulsion (a squick) from a judgemental repulsion.

    Little Miss Hooters Contest 2004

  • But I suspect that the vagina-squick is not actually so powerful and the PC-angst not so extreme as to fully explain the force it carries.

    On Profanity: 3 Hal Duncan 2009

  • But I suspect that the vagina-squick is not actually so powerful and the PC-angst not so extreme as to fully explain the force it carries.

    Archive 2009-01-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • Thanks Dark Eden....new word squick added to my vocabulary.

    Is Rush Limbaugh really that hard to understand? Ann Althouse 2009

  • Ah, it's great stuff, and I really recommend the series - but be warned there is serious Disturbing Imagery therein, and some of it may hit one of your squick points.

    Lucy in the Sky with Spirals intertribal 2010

  • Ah, it's great stuff, and I really recommend the series - but be warned there is serious Disturbing Imagery therein, and some of it may hit one of your squick points.

    intertribal: Lucy in the Sky with Spirals intertribal 2010

  • In fact, you didn't hit my embarrassment squick once, even though there are events which would have under another author's fingers.

    GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD discussion/question thread. karenhealey 2010

  • I know that everybody's got their own squick factor, but geez.

    social disturbances: let's get honest intertribal 2010

  • I know that everybody's got their own squick factor, but geez.

    intertribal: social disturbances: let's get honest intertribal 2010

  • A squick is an old fandom term for something that makes you supremely uncomfortable and you absolutely do not want to read it. It can be a trope, a ship, a concept, or just an event that happens within a fic or in canon.

    What's a squick? Peter Vidani 2016

  • Squick is a term commonly used in fannish discussions about fanworks or professional media that describes anything that is a deep-seated, visceral turn-off for the fan.

    Squick - Fanlore 2023

Comments

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  • Heh. See twincest. *shudder*

    July 8, 2008

  • squick: v. to disturb, unsettle, make uneasy; to cause disgust or revulsion; to gross (someone) out; to freak (someone) out. Also noun, something which causes disgust, revulsion, or uneasiness, or the disgust, revulsion, or uneasiness itself. Also squick (someone) out.

    January 17, 2009

  • Squick is a word popularly understood to have been coined in BSDM circles, but is now in use in many other areas of the internet. It means nails-on-chalkboard, yikes-run-away, unreasoning, personal distaste for a thing or a practice. I personally have several squicks, including a hatred for humiliation comedy; also, gratuitous splatter violence squicks me out.

    June 9, 2009

  • Possibly a contraction of "squeamish" and "ick!" A negative emotional response, more specifically a disturbed or disgusted one. As in: "The relationship between Cordelia and Connor in Angel Season Four gave me a case of the squicks."

    --TVTropes.org

    February 25, 2010

  • I've never come across it.

    February 25, 2010