Squash

//skwɔʃ// intj, name, noun, verb, slang

intj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sport played in a walled court with a soft rubber ball and bats like tennis racquets. uncountable

    "She plays squash every Saturday."

  2. 2
    A plant and its fruit of any of a few species of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd kind.; Cucurbita maxima, including hubbard squash, great winter squash, buttercup squash, and some varieties of pumpkins. countable, uncountable
  3. 3
    Muskrat. countable, obsolete

    "The squash is a four-footed beast, bigger than a cat."

  4. 4
    a game played in an enclosed court by two or four players who strike the ball with long-handled rackets wordnet
  5. 5
    A non-alcoholic drink made from a fruit-based concentrate diluted with water or milk. countable, uncountable

    "Sure. I pour hot squash all over myself and we all have a good chuckle. Everyone except Muggins here."

Show 14 more definitions
  1. 6
    A plant and its fruit of any of a few species of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd kind.; Cucurbita argyrosperma (syn. Cucurbita mixta), cushaw squash. countable, uncountable
  2. 7
    edible fruit of a squash plant; eaten as a vegetable wordnet
  3. 8
    A place or a situation where people have limited space to move. countable, uncountable

    "It's a bit of a squash in this small room."

  4. 9
    A plant and its fruit of any of a few species of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd kind.; Cucurbita moschata, butternut squash, Barbary squash, China squash. countable, uncountable
  5. 10
    any of numerous annual trailing plants of the genus Cucurbita grown for their fleshy edible fruits wordnet
  6. 11
    A preparation made by placing material on a slide (flat, rectangular piece of glass), covering it and applying pressure. countable, uncountable
  7. 12
    A plant and its fruit of any of a few species of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd kind.; Cucurbita pepo, most pumpkins, acorn squash, summer squash, zucchini. countable, uncountable
  8. 13
    Something soft and easily crushed; especially, an unripe pod of peas. countable, obsolete
  9. 14
    Any other similar-looking plant of other genera. countable, uncountable
  10. 15
    Something unripe or soft. countable, derogatory, obsolete
  11. 16
    Any other similar-looking plant of other genera.; Lagenaria siceraria (syn. Cucurbita verrucosa), calabash, long-neck squash. countable, uncountable
  12. 17
    A sudden fall of a heavy, soft body; also, a shock of soft bodies. countable, obsolete
  13. 18
    The edible or decorative fruit of these plants, or this fruit prepared as a dish. countable, uncountable

    "We ate squash and green beans."

  14. 19
    An extremely one-sided, usually short, match. countable, slang, uncountable

    "It was one of the most shocking WWE title matches ever witnessed, and effectively a 20-minute squash match as Brock Lesnar "conquered" his opponent."

Verb
  1. 1
    To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush. transitive
  2. 2
    to compress with violence, out of natural shape or condition wordnet
  3. 3
    To compress or restrict (oneself) into a small space; to squeeze. intransitive, transitive

    "Somehow, she squashed all her books into her backpack, which was now too heavy to carry."

  4. 4
    To suppress; to force into submission. transitive

    "A somewhat popular myth about the Whiskey Rebellion is that Washington personally led the troops into western Pennsylvania and squashed the rebellion."

Intj
  1. 1
    The sound of something relatively heavy splashing or squelching into water. obsolete

    "[…] rain, too, had lately fallen, and had decidedly not evaporated, since, at every step, I went squash! squash! up to the tops of my boots, and many times very extent, stretching to the eastward, […]"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname

Synonyms

All synonyms
crushquashshattersmashsqueezesquish

Example

More examples

"I'd like to play a game of squash."

Etymology

Etymology 1

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).

Etymology 2

Shortening of Narragansett askutasquash (“[a vegetable] eaten green (or raw)”), from askut (“green, raw”) + asquash (“eaten”).

Etymology 3

Clipping of musquash.

Related phrases

Arikara squashDes Moines squashHubbard squashJapanese squashLakota squashMarblehead squashSiam squashacorn squashbanana squashblack seed squashbutton squashcustard squash

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.