squash

intj

Etymology: 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).

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

   “[…] 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, […]”

   “[…] to catch all the rain […]; my boots went squash, squash, as I turned on to the high road, […]”

name

1. A surname

noun

Etymology: Clipping of musquash.

1. Muskrat.

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

verb

Etymology: 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).

1. To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.
2. To compress or restrict (oneself) into a small space; to squeeze.

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

   “We all managed to squash into Mum's tiny car.”

3. To suppress; to force into submission.

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