Definition: squash

Search dictionary for

Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 

squash
     n 1: any of numerous annual tendril-bearing trailing plants of
          the genus Cucurbita grown for their fleshy edible fruits
          [syn: squash vine]
     2: edible fruit of a squash plant; eaten as a vegetable
     3: a game played in an enclosed court by two or four players
        who strike the ball with long-handled rackets [syn: squash
        racquets, squash rackets]
     v : to compress with violence, out of natural shape or
         condition; "crush an aluminum can"; "squeeze a lemon"
         [syn: crush, squelch, mash, squeeze]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) 

Squash \Squash\, n.
   A game much like rackets, played in a walled court with soft
   rubber balls and bats like tennis rackets.
Squash \Squash\, n.
   1. Something soft and easily crushed; especially, an unripe
      pod of pease.

            Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a
            boy; as a squash is before 't is a peascod. --Shak.

   2. Hence, something unripe or soft; -- used in contempt.
      ``This squash, this gentleman.'' --Shak.

   3. A sudden fall of a heavy, soft body; also, a shock of soft
      bodies. --Arbuthnot.

            My fall was stopped by a terrible squash. --Swift.
Squash \Squash\, n. [Cf. Musquash.] (Zo["o]l.)
   An American animal allied to the weasel. [Obs.] --Goldsmith.
Squash \Squash\, n. [Massachusetts Indian asq, pl. asquash, raw,
   green, immaturate, applied to fruit and vegetables which were
   used when green, or without cooking; askutasquash vine
   apple.] (Bot.)
   A plant and its fruit of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd
   kind.

   Note: The species are much confused. The long-neck squash is
         called Cucurbita verrucosa, the Barbary or China
         squash, C. moschata, and the great winter squash, C.
         maxima, but the distinctions are not clear.

   Squash beetle (Zo["o]l.), a small American beetle
      (Diabrotica, or Galeruca vittata) which is often
      abundant and very injurious to the leaves of squash,
      cucumber, etc. It is striped with yellow and black. The
      name is applied also to other allied species.

   Squash bug (Zo["o]l.), a large black American hemipterous
      insect (Coreus, or Anasa, tristis) injurious to squash
      vines.
Squash \Squash\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Squashed; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Squashing.] [OE. squashen, OF. escachier, esquachier, to
   squash, to crush, F. ['e]cacher, perhaps from (assumed) LL.
   excoacticare, fr. L. ex + coactare to constrain, from cogere,
   coactum, to compel. Cf. Cogent, Squat, v. i.]
   To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.