Be There or Be Square: Meaning and Use

English idioms and expressions can be both confusing and funny. Today we’ll learn the meaning and correct usage of a silly-sounding one: “Be there or be square!” This one is a little harder to decipher than our recent lesson on: “Thanks for the heads up.”

First, some quick background about the person writing this article. My name is Ms. Marshall, and I’ve been an English teacher for almost 20 years, now! I’m also an artist, and I hand-illustrate every single drawing on this site — such as “Flies or Flys?”

My aim is to create memorable cartoons (like the evil “E” in the misspelling, “truely“) that will help the educational information stick in the brain. On to today’s tutorial!

“Be There or Be Square” Meaning

In English, the meaning of the rhyming expression, “Be there or be square!” is that the listener is being good-naturedly pressured to go to something, and being warned if they don’t, they’ll be considered uncool. As an example of how it use it, you might say with a smile to a friend: “My birthday party is at 4pm next Saturday in the Aquarium, and we’ll be watching the cute octopus do tricks at the Aquarium. Be there or be square!”

This expression isn’t actually insulting, offensive, or rudely pressuring. It’s meant to be fun, informal, and a little geeky and silly. Why is this the case?

An Old-Fashioned Term for “Uncool”

In order to understand why the expression is interpreted like that, we need to define a certain idiom: “Being a square.” In the 1950s, the term “square” began to be used figuratively to mean someone who is so rigid, goody-goody, and rule-following that they are highly uncool and not hip.

For example, a Beatnik might scoff, “You want to go to sleep at 8pm instead of heading to a jazz club with us? Don’t be such a square, man!” If you think about the literal meaning of “square,” this idiom makes sense, since that shape is perfectly orderly and rigid… and maybe a little boring!

(As a heads-up, we don’t really use the idiom “square” this way anymore, except in the expression we’re discussing today. This is part of why “Be there or be square” has such a silly, old-fashioned flair to it.)

Now, let’s check out a time-lapse video of my steps in sketching the cute drawings for this lesson in the embedded video here. Does my art process match how you thought I drew it?

Be There or Be Square!

I hope this lesson on the meaning of the English language expression, “Be there or be square!” has been interesting and useful. What would you like me to illustrate next, besides “Color or Colour?” Do share!

Want more? Check out my lesson on “Forteen vs. Fourteen” — commonly confused words with a simple way to remember the correct way to write them!