different between smash vs squish

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skw??/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

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.

Noun

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, issues 17-26, page 236)

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

3. (countable, Britain, 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.

Translations

Verb

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 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.

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, […]

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• squishy

Translations

Etymology 2

First possible attestation from 1999. Formed by analogy with crush and possibly smash, both of which have senses as types of compression as well as types of attraction. 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'". The same term was used with a similar meaning in a 1997 episode of the TV show Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, though the 2007 (re)coining was apparently independent.

Noun

squish (plural squishes)

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

References