squash
UK /skwɒʃ/ · US /skwɔʃ/ noun, verb, interjection, proper noun
Forms squashes squashing squashed
- noun (uncountable) A sport played in a walled court with a soft rubber ball and bats like tennis racquets. “She plays squash every Saturday.”
- noun A non-alcoholic drink made from a fruit-based concentrate diluted with water. “When I'm thirsty I drink squash; it tastes much nicer than plain water.”
- noun A place or a situation where people have limited space to move. “It's a bit of a squash in this small room.”
- noun (biology) A preparation made by placing material on a slide (flat, rectangular piece of glass), covering it and applying pressure.
- noun (obsolete, countable) Something soft and easily crushed; especially, an unripe pod of peas.
- noun (obsolete, countable, derogatory) Something unripe or soft.
- noun (obsolete, countable) A sudden fall of a heavy, soft body; also, a shock of soft bodies.
- noun (slang, professional wrestling) An extremely one-sided, usually short, match.
- verb (transitive) To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.
- verb (transitive, intransitive) To compress or restrict (oneself) into a small space; to squeeze. “Somehow, she squashed all her books into her backpack, which was now too heavy to carry.”
- verb (transitive) To suppress; to force into submission.
- interjection (obsolete) The sound of something relatively heavy splashing or squelching into water.
- noun Cucurbita maxima, including hubbard squash, great winter squash, buttercup squash, and some varieties of pumpkins.
- noun Cucurbita argyrosperma (syn. Cucurbita mixta), cushaw squash.
- noun Cucurbita moschata, butternut squash, Barbary squash, China squash.
- noun Cucurbita pepo, most pumpkins, acorn squash, summer squash, zucchini.
- noun (botany) Any other similar-looking plant of other genera.
- noun Lagenaria siceraria (syn. Cucurbita verrucosa), calabash, long-neck squash.
- noun (cooking) The edible or decorative fruit of these plants, or this fruit prepared as a dish. “We ate squash and green beans.”
- noun (obsolete, countable) Muskrat.
Synonyms
cordial diluting juice water juice smear condense press squash vine squash racquets squash rackets crush squelch mash squeeze
Etymology
From Middle English squachen, squatchen, from Old French esquacher, escachier, from Vulgar Latin *excoāctiāre, from Latin ex + coāctāre. Probably influenced by Middle English quashen, quassen, from Old French esquasser, escasser (“to crush, shatter, destroy, break”), from Vulgar Latin *exquassare, from Latin ex- + quassare (“to shatter”) (see quash).
Shortening of Narragansett askutasquash (“[a vegetable] eaten green (or raw)”), from askut (“green, raw”) + asquash (“eaten”).
Clipping of musquash.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An American animal allied to the weasel. [Obs.] Goldsmith.
- noun A plant and its fruit of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd kind.
- verb To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.
- noun Something soft and easily crushed; especially, an unripe pod of pease.
Etymology [Cf. Musquash.]
Etymology [Massachusetts Indian asq, pl. asquash, raw, green, immaturate, applied to fruit and vegetables which were used when green, or without cooking; askutasquash vine apple.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “squash”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details