squash
part of speech
verb (squash, squashes, squashed, squashing); noun (squash — a sport, a drink; a squash, squashes — a vegetable)
meaning for a pupil
1) To press or crush something so it becomes flat or out of shape: squash a can, a squashed sandwich. tree →
2) To squeeze into a small space: we squashed into the car. tree →
3) A squash is a vegetable that grows on a vine, like butternut squash, courgette (zucchini) or pumpkin. tree →
4) Squash is a sport played with rackets and a small rubber ball in a room with four walls. tree →
5) In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, squash is a sweet fruit drink made by adding water to concentrate (cordial). tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and recycling, squashing cans and boxes makes them take up less space; a squashed object has the same mass but a different shape. In cooking and gardening, squashes are plants of the gourd family grown in autumn. In everyday life, "it's a squash" means it's crowded. In PE, squash is a fast racket game. Phrases: "squash flat", "squash in", "squashed together", "butternut squash", "orange squash".
examples
- Squash the cans before you put them in the recycling. tree →
- My sandwich got squashed at the bottom of my bag. tree →
- Five of us squashed into the back of the car. tree →
- We grew a big butternut squash in the garden. tree →
- Would you like some orange squash? tree →
- Dad plays squash on Fridays. tree →
- Don't squash the bugs; put them outside. tree →
- It was a real squash on the bus this morning. tree →
- The Carl put his coat on the ground, opened it carefully, and revealed a store of blackberries, squashed, crushed, mangled, democratic, ill-looking. tree →
note
Third person: squashes (add -es). Squash as a drink or sport is uncountable ("a glass of squash"); as a vegetable it is countable ("two squashes"). In the USA and Canada the drink is not usually called squash; people buy juice or drink mix instead. "Squash" and "squish" mean almost the same.
In the corpora
- A gas spreads out to fill all the space it is in, and it can be squashed because its particles are far apart.
- Squashed air pushes back hard, which is how bike tyres and footballs work.
- Squash is a solution: more water makes it more dilute, and a sieve or filter cannot take the cordial back out.
- Squash a blueberry on your T-shirt and the purple mark refuses to wash out.
- Meanwhile Ruby, Mia's best friend since Reception, was squashed onto the arm of the sofa by six new kids.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «squash» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.