[Related to, or directly from, SQUASH v.1]
I. 1. The unripe pod of a pea. Also applied contemptuously to persons. Obs. exc. arch.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., III. i. 191. I pray you commend mee to mistresse Squash, your mother, and to master Peascod your father. Ibid. (1601), Twel. N., I. v. 166. As a squash is before tis a pescod. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., I. ii. 160. This Kernell, This squash, this Gentleman.
[1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. 34. The whole time … my mind was simply in the state of a squash before ’tis a peascod.]
b. dial. (See quot.)
1895. Rye, E. Angl. Gloss., 210. Squash,… pea-pods which look full but are really empty.
† 2. Squash pear, a variety of pear. Squash perry, a beverage made from this. Obs.
1678. Worlidge, Cyder, 219. Pears that are esteemed for their vinous juice in Worcestershire, and those adjacent parts, are the Red and Green Squash-pears.
1699. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (ed. 9), 170. Pears:… Red Squash, Bosbery, Watford, for Perry.
1766. Compl. Farmer, s.v. Perry, Of these the Bosbury pear, the Bareland pear, and the horse pear, are the most esteemed for perry in Worcestershire, and the squash pear, as it is called, in Gloucestershire.
1826. Art Brewing (ed. 2), 167. Squash perry, in ordinary seasons, [sells] from £4 to £8 the hhd.
3. A soft india-rubber ball used in a form of the game of rackets (orig. at Harrow). Also attrib., as squash-ball, -court, racket(s, etc.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 May, 14/1. The game in question, termed ‘squash’ rackets at Harrow if my memory serves me…. There are the ‘squashes’—that is, soft indiarubber balls—to be purchased.
1899. Miles, Lawn Tennis, 87. Turn that wall into a squash-racket court.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 10 Aug., 8/2. Mr. John Jacob Astor has built a private ‘squash’ court.
II. 4. a. The act of squashing; the fact or sound of some soft substance being crushed or dispersed.
1611. Cotgr., Escachure,… a squash, crush, knock, or squeeze (wherby a thing is flatted, or beaten close together).
1739. R. Bull, trans. Dedekindus’ Grobianus, 249. Anon, our Hero’s Boots, well-soak’d with Wash, At ev’ry Step return’d a dreadful Squash.
b. The shock or impact occasioned by a soft heavy body falling upon a surface; the sound produced by this. Also in with a squash.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, III. ii. 74. The place, the fall, the squash, the hugge,… did so confound our Votary, that he could not containe.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, II. xvi. I shall throw down the burden with a squash among them, take it up who dares.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, II. viii. My fall was stopped by a terrible squash that sounded louder to my ears than the cataract of Niagara.
1811. Ora & Juliet, III. 131. This uncommon mass of mortality rolled on to a seat next to Zaire, on which she sunk with a mighty squash.
1812. H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., The Stranger. Hearing a squash, he cried, Damn it, what’s that?
c. To go to squash, to become squashed or ruined.
1889. Froude, Table-t. Shirley, 205. It has all gone to squash.
5. a. College Football slang. = SCRIMMAGE sb. 4.
1857. Symonds, Lett., in H. F. Brown, Life, iii. (1903), 58. A squash is a large collection of boys, about twenty, with the football in the midst of them.
1867. Routledge’s Handbk. Football, 51. A disputed ‘touch-down,’ in consequence of the ball having been carried in by a squash or otherwise.
b. A crush or crowd of persons, etc.; a large number.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 May, 4/1. Young Lord Horsewhipborough is just passing as slowly as the modern squash compels one to progress.
1884. W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, I. ii. 178. Your father made a will, Only there was not anything to will Except a squash of sermons.
6. Something that is squashed or crushed.
1888. G. H. Boughton, in Harper’s Mag., Dec., 80/2. It seemed churlish to pass him by without a sign, especially as he took off his squash of a hat to me.
7. Short for lemon-squash LEMON sb.1 7.
1894. Mrs. Dyan, Man’s Keeping (1899), 203. A smaller table held ices, squashes, and such.
1904. Sladen, Lovers Japan, II. iv. She … kept her mouth intently on the straw in her squash.
