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squash¹

(skwŏsh, skwôsh)

1. Any of various bushy or vining plants of the genus Cucurbita, having unisexual flowers and fleshy edible fruit with a thick rind when mature.

2. The fruit of any of these plants, eaten as a vegetable.

[From alteration of Narragansett askútasquash.]

squash²

(skwŏsh, skwôsh)

v. squashed, squash·ing, squash·es

v.tr.

1. To beat, squeeze, or press into a pulp or a flattened mass; crush. See Synonyms at crush.

2. To put down or suppress; quash: squash a revolt.

3. To silence or fluster, as with crushing words: squash a heckler.

v.intr.

1. To become crushed, flattened, or pulpy, as by pressure or impact.

2. To move with a splashing or sucking sound, as when walking through boggy ground.

a. The act or sound of squashing.

b. Something that has been squashed.

2. A crushed or crowded mass: a squash of people.

3. Sports A game played on a four-walled court by two or four players who use long-handled rackets to hit a small rubber ball against the front wall, with play stopping if the ball bounces twice on the floor or does not reach the front wall after a stroke. Also called squash rackets.

4. Chiefly British A citrus-based soft drink.

adv.

With a squashing sound.

[Middle English squachen, from Old French esquasser, from Vulgar Latin *exquassāre : Latin ex-, intensive pref.; see EX- + Latin quassāre, to shatter, frequentative of quatere, to shake; see kwēt- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

squasher n.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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