squish

• IPA^(key): /skwɪʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʃ

Apparently an alteration of squash, influenced by obsolete squiss (“to squeeze”). Cognate with Scots squische, squies (“to crush, squeeze”). Compare also French esquicher from Old Occitan esquichar (“to squeeze, squish”). See also squeeze, squelch.

squish (countable and uncountable, plural squishes)

1. (countable) The sound or action of something, especially something moist, being squeezed or crushed.
   • 2007, Robin Parrish, Fearless, page 207:

     Alex reached the bottom and Grant heard a squish as she landed in the mud on the bottom of the river.

2. (countable, politics, informal, derogatory) A political moderate.
   • 2009, Time, volume 173, numbers 17–26, page 236:

     Some conservatives think that in the long run, the party will be better off without squishes like Specter […]

   • 2022 April 30, Jonathan Weisman, Trip Gabriel, “Once Soft-Spoken, Ohio Conservatives Embrace the Bombast”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     “Josh Mandel: Another failed career politician squish,” a new ad from a super PAC supporting Mr. Vance blared on Ohio television sets on Friday, calling Mr. Mandel, who is mounting his third Senate run, a “two-time loser” and “a moderate for the moderates.”

3. (uncountable, UK, slang, archaic) Marmalade.
   • 1880, Belgravia, volume 40, page 63:

     Where they are loaves and joints melt as snow in the sunshine; bowls of cream are of no more account than acorn-cups filled with dew; and the 'squish'—as they call the mother's home-made marmalade—has to be renewed daily; […]

   • 1905, The Sphere: An Illustrated Newspaper for the Home, page VIII:

     There was a time when the “squish” manufactured by Mr. Frank Cooper at Oxford was not known very extensively outside the world of undergraduates. With the march of events though the fame of Cooper's Oxford marmalade has become world-wide, and the natural consequence is that a new factory has had to be built to cope with the increased business.

squish (third-person singular simple present squishes, present participle squishing, simple past and past participle squished)

1. (transitive, informal) To squeeze, compress, or crush (especially something moist).

   The sandwich tasted fine, even though it had got squished in his lunchbox.

   • 2012, Adam Freeman, Windows 8 Apps Revealed Using XAML and C#, page 74:

     Rather than squishing everything into a tiny window, I have shown only part of my app.

   • 2016, Robert Muchamore, The Sleepwalker, page 100:

     It hadn't rained for a few days, and the water in the ditch had been stagnant long enough for insect larvae to hatch. One landed on her nose, and she squished it before flicking it away from her finger.

2. (intransitive, informal) To be compressed or squeezed.
   • 2013, Julia Crane, Talia Jager, Broken Promise:

     I kicked off my shoes and wiggled my toes on the soft moss. It felt amazing as it squished between my toes, […]

• (to squeeze, compress): condense, squash; see also Thesaurus:compress

• squish mitten
• squishable
• squisher
• squishy

Formed by analogy with crush and possibly smash, both of which have senses as types of compression as well as types of attraction.

Possibly first attested in 1999 (see Citations:squish) and then later coined or recoined in 2007 by the user Raisin on the forums of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network as "a milder synonym for the word 'crush'".^[1]

The term was also used with a similar meaning in a 1997 episode of the TV show Aaahh!!! Real Monsters,^[2] though the 2007 (re)coining was apparently independent.^[1]

squish (plural squishes)

1. (slang) A non-romantic and generally non-sexual infatuation with somebody one is not dating, or the object of that infatuation; a platonic crush.