Squash
Squash (skwosh) , noun
[Compare Musquash.]
(Zoology) An American animal allied to the weasel. [Obsolete] — Goldsmith
Squash , noun
[Massachusetts Indian asq, pl. asquash, raw, green, immature, applied to fruit and vegetables which were used when green, or without cooking; askutasquash vine apple.]
(Botany) A plant and its fruit of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd kind.
The species are much confused. The long-neck squash is called Cucurbita verrucosa, the Barbary or China squash, Cucurbita moschata, and the great winter squash, Cucurbita maxima, but the distinctions are not clear.
Collocations (2)
Squash beetle (Zoology) , a small American beetle (Diabrotica vittata, syn. 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 (Zoology) , a large black American hemipterous insect (Coreus tristis syn. Anasa tristis) injurious to squash vines.
Squash (skwosht) , transitive verb
[Old English squachen, Old French escachier, esquachier, to squash, to crush, French écacher, perhaps from (assumed) Late Latin excoacticare, from Latin ex + coactare to constrain, from cogere, coactum, to compel. Compare Cogent, Squat, v. i.]
To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.
Squash , noun
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.
2.
Hence, something unripe or soft; -- used in contempt.
This squash, this gentleman.
3.
A sudden fall of a heavy, soft body; also, a shock of soft bodies. — Arbuthnot
My fall was stopped by a terrible squash.
4.
A game much like rackets, played in a walled court with soft rubber balls and bats like tennis rackets; -- called also squash rackets.