SQUASH (squashes)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: squashes   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does squash mean? 

• SQUASH (noun)
  The noun SQUASH has 3 senses:

1. any of numerous annual trailing plants of the genus Cucurbita grown for their fleshy edible fruits

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

  Familiarity information: SQUASH used as a noun is uncommon.

• SQUASH (verb)
  The verb SQUASH has 1 sense:

1. to compress with violence, out of natural shape or condition

  Familiarity information: SQUASH used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SQUASH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of numerous annual trailing plants of the genus Cucurbita grown for their fleshy edible fruits

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

squash; squash vine

Hypernyms ("squash" is a kind of...):

vine (a plant with a weak stem that derives support from climbing, twining, or creeping along a surface)

Meronyms (parts of "squash"):

squash (edible fruit of a squash plant; eaten as a vegetable)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "squash"):

autumn pumpkin; Cucurbita pepo; pumpkin; pumpkin vine (a coarse vine widely cultivated for its large pulpy round orange fruit with firm orange skin and numerous seeds; subspecies of Cucurbita pepo include the summer squashes and a few autumn squashes)

Cucurbita pepo melopepo; summer squash; summer squash vine (any of various usually bushy plants producing fruit that is eaten while immature and before the rind or seeds harden)

winter squash; winter squash plant (any of various plants of the species Cucurbita maxima and Cucurbita moschata producing squashes that have hard rinds and mature in the fall)

Holonyms ("squash" is a member of...):

Cucurbita; genus Cucurbita (type genus of the Cucurbitaceae)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Edible fruit of a squash plant; eaten as a vegetable

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("squash" is a kind of...):

veg; vegetable; veggie (edible seeds or roots or stems or leaves or bulbs or tubers or nonsweet fruits of any of numerous herbaceous plant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "squash"):

summer squash (any of various fruits of the gourd family that mature during the summer; eaten while immature and before seeds and rind harden)

winter squash (any of various fruits of the gourd family with thick rinds and edible yellow to orange flesh that mature in the fall and can be stored for several months)

Holonyms ("squash" is a part of...):

squash; squash vine (any of numerous annual trailing plants of the genus Cucurbita grown for their fleshy edible fruits)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A game played in an enclosed court by two or four players who strike the ball with long-handled rackets

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

squash; squash rackets; squash racquets

Hypernyms ("squash" is a kind of...):

court game (an athletic game played on a court)

Domain member category:

cut; undercut ((sports) a stroke that puts reverse spin on the ball)

drive ((sports) a hard straight return (as in tennis or squash))

forehand; forehand shot; forehand stroke ((sports) a return made with the palm of the hand facing the direction of the stroke (as in tennis or badminton or squash))

forehand drive ((sports) hard straight return made on the forehand side (as in tennis or badminton or squash))

serve; service ((sports) a stroke that puts the ball in play)

fault ((sports) a serve that is illegal (e.g., that lands outside the prescribed area))

exchange; rally ((sports) an unbroken sequence of several successive strokes)

• SQUASH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they squash    ... he / she / it squashes   
Past simple: squashed   
Past participle: squashed   
-ing form: squashing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

To compress with violence, out of natural shape or condition

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

crush; mash; squash; squeeze; squelch

Context example:

squeeze a lemon

Hypernyms (to "squash" is one way to...):

press (exert pressure or force to or upon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "squash"):

wring (twist, squeeze, or compress in order to extract liquid)

stamp (crush or grind with a heavy instrument)

steamroller (crush with a steamroller as if to level)

tread (crush as if by treading on)

telescope (crush together or collapse)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

It is much more extended in one direction than in the other and so looks squashed on one side even after accounting for its inclined projection on the sky.

(Hubble Finds Huge System of Dusty Material Enveloping the Young Star HR 4796A, NASA)

For their study, the Cambridge researchers squashed layers of FePS3 together under high pressure (about 10 Gigapascals), they found that it switched between an insulator and conductor, a phenomenon known as a Mott transition.

(‘Magnetic graphene’ switches between insulator and conductor, University of Cambridge)

He counted alfalfa, sugar beet, papaya, squash, eggplant, potato and apple among GM crops already in the market.

(GM tech expands with more crops to more countries, SciDev.Net)

Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with these reflections, when one of the reapers, approaching within ten yards of the ridge where I lay, made me apprehend that with the next step I should be squashed to death under his foot, or cut in two with his reaping-hook.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

My fall was stopped by a terrible squash, that sounded louder to my ears than the cataract of Niagara; after which, I was quite in the dark for another minute, and then my box began to rise so high, that I could see light from the tops of the windows.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)