Squash

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /skwɒʃ/
• US IPA: /skwɑʃ/
• Rhymes: -ɒʃ

Noun

1. (uncountable) A sport played in a walled court with a soft rubber ball and bats like tennis racquets.
• 1922, w, “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days Chapter 3/19/2, Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.
2. (British) A soft drink made from a fruit-based concentrate diluted with water.When I'm thirsty I drink squash; it tastes much nicer than plain water.
3. A place or a situation where people have limited space to move.It's a bit of a squash in this small room.
4. (obsolete, countable) Something soft and easily crushed; especially, an unripe pod of peas.
5. (obsolete, countable, pejorative) Something unripe or soft.
6. (obsolete, countable) A sudden fall of a heavy, soft body; also, a shock of soft bodies.

Derived terms

• squashable
• squash ball
• squash court
• squash player
• squash racket

Full definition of squash

Verb

1. (transitive) To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.
2. (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.We all managed to squash into Mum's tiny car.

Derived terms

• squash up
• squashy
• squish

Shortening of askutasquash, Narragansett ("vegetable eaten green (or raw)").

Noun

1. (countable, botany) A plant and its fruit of five species of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd kind.
1. , including hubbard squash, great winter squash, buttercup squash, and some varieties of pumpkins.
2. , cushaw squash.
3. , butternut squash, Barbary squash, China squash.
4. Cucurbita pepo, most pumpkins, acorn squash, summer squash, zucchini.
5. , long-neck squash
2. The edible or decorative fruit of these plants, or this fruit prepared as a dish.We ate squash and green beans.

Derived terms

• squash beetle
• squash bug

shortening of musquash

Noun

1. (obsolete, zoo, countable) Muskrat.
• DampierThe squash is a four-footed beast, bigger than a cat.----