squash
 I. squash1 (skwŏsh, skwôsh)n.
1. Any of various tendril-bearing plants of the genus Cucurbita, having fleshy edible fruit with a leathery rind and unisexual flowers.
2. The fruit of any of these plants, eaten as a vegetable. [From alteration of Narragansett askútasquash.] II. squash2 (skwŏsh, skwôsh)v. squashed, squash·ing, squash·esv. tr.
1. To beat, squeeze, or press into a pulp or a flattened mass; crush. See Synonyms at crush.
2. To put down or suppress; quash:
squash a revolt.
3. To silence or fluster, as with crushing words:
squash a heckler.v. intr.
1. To become crushed, flattened, or pulpy, as by pressure or impact.
2. To move with a splashing or sucking sound, as when walking through boggy ground.n.
1.
a. The act or sound of squashing.
b. The fact or condition of being squashed.
2. A crushed or crowded mass:
a squash of people.
3. Sports. A racket game played in a closed walled court with a rubber ball.
4. Chiefly British. A citrus-based soft drink.adv.
With a squashing sound. [Middle English squachen, from Old French esquasser, from Vulgar Latin *exquassāre: Latin ex-, intensive pref.; see ex- + Latin quassāre, to shatter, frequentative of quatere, to shake; See kwēt- in Indo-European Roots.] squashʹer n.
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