squash
    n 1: any of numerous annual trailing plants of the genus
         Cucurbita grown for their fleshy edible fruits [syn:
         squash, squash vine]
    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 [syn: squash,
       squash racquets, squash rackets]
    v 1: to compress with violence, out of natural shape or
         condition; "crush an aluminum can"; "squeeze a lemon" [syn:
         squash, crush, squelch, mash, squeeze]

Squash \Squash\, n.
   1. Something soft and easily crushed; especially, an unripe
      pod of pease.
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            Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a
            boy; as a squash is before 't is a peascod. --Shak.
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   2. Hence, something unripe or soft; -- used in contempt.
      "This squash, this gentleman." --Shak.
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   3. A sudden fall of a heavy, soft body; also, a shock of soft
      bodies. --Arbuthnot.
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            My fall was stopped by a terrible squash. --Swift.
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   4. A game much like rackets, played in a walled court with
      soft rubber balls and bats like tennis rackets; -- called
      also squash rackets.
      [PJC]

Squash \Squash\ (skw[o^]sh), n. [Cf. Musquash.] (Zool.)
   An American animal allied to the weasel. [Obs.] --Goldsmith.
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Squash \Squash\, n. [Massachusetts Indian asq, pl. asquash, raw,
   green, immature, applied to fruit and vegetables which were
   used when green, or without cooking; askutasquash vine
   apple.] (Bot.)
   A plant and its fruit of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd
   kind.
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   Note: 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.
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   Squash beetle (Zool.), 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 (Zool.), a large black American hemipterous
      insect (Coreus tristis syn. Anasa tristis) injurious
      to squash vines.
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Squash \Squash\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Squashed (skw[o^]sht); p.
   pr. & vb. n. Squashing.] [OE. squachen, OF. escachier,
   esquachier, to squash, to crush, F. ['e]cacher, perhaps from
   (assumed) LL. excoacticare, fr. L. ex + coactare to
   constrain, from cogere, coactum, to compel. Cf. Cogent,
   Squat, v. i.]
   To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.
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