different between smash vs squeeze

English

Etymology

From a blend of smack +? mash. Compare Swedish smask (“a light explosion, crack, report”), dialectal Swedish smaska (“to smack, kiss”), Danish smaske (“to smack with the lips”), Low German smaksen (“to smack with the lips, kiss”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /smæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Noun

smash (plural smashes)

1. The sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.

2. (Britain, colloquial) A traffic collision.

3. (colloquial) Something very successful or popular (as music, food, fashion, etc); a hit.
   • 2019, Ginaluca Russo, "Taylor Swift Stuns In a Periwinkle Ruffle Mini Dress on the Billboard Music Awards Red Carpet", Teen Vogue, 1 May 2019:

     All together, this look is a smash in our books.
4. (tennis) A very hard overhead shot hit sharply downward.
5. (colloquial, archaic) A bankruptcy.
6. A kind of julep cocktail containing chunks of fresh fruit that can be eaten after finishing the drink.

Synonyms

• (sound of a violent impact): crash
• (colloquial: traffic accident): crash
• (colloquial: something very successful): smash hit

Descendants

• ? Czech: sme?
• ? Serbo-Croatian: sme?

Translations

Verb

smash (third-person singular simple present smashes, present participle smashing, simple past and past participle smashed)

1. To break (something brittle) violently.
   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Chapter X

     Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable.

2. (intransitive) To be destroyed by being smashed.

3. To hit extremely hard.

4. (figuratively) To ruin completely and suddenly.

5. (transitive, figuratively) To defeat overwhelmingly; to gain a comprehensive success over.

   I really smashed that English exam.

6. (US) To deform through continuous pressure.

7. (transitive, slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse with.
   • 2020 November 7, Dave Chappelle on Saturday Night Live:

     Farmersonly.com. A website that begs the question, what kind of bitch only smashes with farmers?

Synonyms

• (break violently): dash, shatter
• (be destroyed by being smashed): shatter
• (hit extremely hard): pound, thump, wallop; see also Thesaurus:hit
• (ruin completely and suddenly): dash
• (defeat overwhelmingly): slaughter, trounce
• (have sexual intercourse with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Descendants

• ? Catalan: esmaixar

Translations

Related terms

Anagrams

• HMSAS, SAHMs, Sahms, Shams, shams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English smash.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sma?/

Noun

smash m (plural smashs)

1. (tennis) smash

Related terms

• smasher

Further reading

• “smash” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English smash.

Noun

smash m (invariable)

1. smash (tennis shot)

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English smash.

Noun

smash m (plural smashes)

1. (tennis) smash (overhead shot hit sharply downward)

English

Etymology

From earlier squize, squise (whence also dialectal English squizzen and squeege), first attested around 1600, probably an alteration of quease (which is attested since 1550), from Middle English queisen (“to squeeze”), from Old English cw?san, cw?san (“to crush, squeeze”), of unknown origin, perhaps imitative (compare Swedish qväsa, kväsa (“to squeeze, bruise, crush; quell”), Dutch kwetsen (“to injure, hurt”), German quetschen (“to squeeze”)). Compare also French esquicher from Old Occitan esquichar (“to press, squeeze”). The slang expression "to put the squeeze on (someone or something)", meaning "to exert influence", is from 1711. The baseball term "squeeze play" is first recorded 1905. "Main squeeze" ("most important person") is attested from 1896, the specific meaning "one's sweetheart, lover" is attested by 1980.

The nonstandard strong forms squoze and squozen, attested dialectally since at least the mid-19th century, are by analogy with freeze.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skwi?z/
• Rhymes: -i?z

Verb

squeeze (third-person singular simple present squeezes, present participle squeezing, simple past squeezed or (nonstandard) squoze, past participle squeezed or (nonstandard) squozen)

1. (transitive) To apply pressure to from two or more sides at once.

   I squeezed the ball between my hands.

   Please don't squeeze the toothpaste tube in the middle.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1:

     "Over there—by the rock," Steele muttered, with his brush between his teeth, squeezing out raw sienna, and keeping his eyes fixed on Betty Flanders's back.

2. (transitive) To embrace closely; to give a tight hug to.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To fit into a tight place.

   I managed to squeeze the car into that parking space.

   Can you squeeze through that gap?

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     Could he not squeeze under the seat of a carriage? He had seen this method adopted by schoolboys, when the journey- money provided by thoughtful parents had been diverted to other and better ends.

4. (transitive) To remove something with difficulty, or apparent difficulty.

   He squeezed some money out of his wallet.

5. (transitive) To put in a difficult position by presenting two or more choices.

   I'm being squeezed between my job and my volunteer work.

   • 2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, "British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):

     At a time when Mr. Cameron is being squeezed from both sides — from the right by members of his own party and by the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe U.K. Independence Party, and from the left by his Liberal Democrat coalition partners — the move seemed uncharacteristically clunky.

6. (transitive, figuratively) To oppress with hardships, burdens, or taxes; to harass.
7. (transitive, baseball) To attempt to score a runner from third by bunting.

   Jones squeezed in Smith with a perfect bunt.

Synonyms

• (to apply pressure to from two or more sides at once): compress, condense; see also Thesaurus:compress

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

squeeze (plural squeezes)

1. A close or tight fit.
2. (figuratively) A difficult position.

3. A hug or other affectionate grasp.

4. (slang) A romantic partner.
   • 1988, James Ellroy, Dudley Smith Trio: The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential, White Jazz, Random House (?ISBN), page 459:

     He spent nights cruising queer bars near the pad, saw Wiltsie at the dives, but always in the company of his squeeze, a guy he called 'Duane.'

   • 2012, J. Lamar, Tip Tap Toe, Xlibris Corporation (?ISBN), page 141:

     His young squeeze had just backed out and had not seen the assault on her “ sugar daddy” when it happened!

   • 2014, N. Lombardi Jr., Journey Towards a Falling Sun, John Hunt Publishing (?ISBN)

     But even considering that, he might have been a bit more restrained if he hadn't run into his former sexy squeeze, Penny Atieno.

5. (slang) An illicit alcoholic drink made by squeezing Sterno through cheesecloth, etc., and mixing the result with fruit juice.
6. (baseball) The act of bunting in an attempt to score a runner from third.

7. (card games) A play that forces an opponent to discard a card that gives up one or more tricks.
8. (caving) A traversal of a narrow passage.
9. A moulding, cast or other impression of an object, chiefly a design, inscription etc., especially by pressing wet paper onto the surface and peeling off when dry.
   • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson 1986, p. 65:

     Nollekens, finding his wife always benefited by these visits, never refused White a squeeze of a patera, or any thing that would answer his purpose; […] White […] had turned his wine-cellars into manufactories for the produce of cast coins, and moderns squeezes from Roman lamps.

10. (mining) The gradual closing of workings by the weight of the overlying strata.
11. (dated) The situation experienced by a middleman when pressured from both sides, especially financially.
12. (dated) A bribe, fee, or extortionary price paid to a middleman, especially in China; the practice of requiring such a bribe or fee.

Translations

See also

• squash
• squeegee
• squish
• margin squeeze