square

/skweər/ adjective (written abbreviation UK sq, written abbreviation US sq.)

Definition

› MEASURES, PROPERTY used before units of measurement to describe the size of an area, especially an area of land. An area of 100 square metres is equal in size to 100 squares with sides that are 1 metre long: 100 square metres/kilometres/miles, etc. About 81,000 square metres of office space is due to be completed in the City this year.100 square feet/foot/inches, etc. The house has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms in about 4,700 square feet. New Jersey has an average of well over 1,000 people per square mile. Permeable concrete costs about $9 per square foot.

› [after noun] MEASURES used after units of measurement to describe the size of an area. An area of 10 metres square is equal in size to a square with sides that are 10 metres long, or equal to 100 square metres: 10 metres/feet/foot, etc. square We will deliver items to a maximum size of three feet square.10 miles/kilometres, etc. square The city has a population of 1 million crammed into an area only a few miles square.

be (all) square › to be in a situation in which everyone or everything is equal and no one has an advantage over anyone else: Dealers claim that after Wednesday's bout of profit-taking, the market is 'all square' again. › if people are all square, all debts between them have been paid and no one owes or is owed any money: If I give you another $5, then we're all square.

(Definition of square adjective from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)