different between squeeze vs shatter

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English schateren (“to scatter, dash”), an assibilated form of Middle English scateren ("to scatter"; see scatter), from Old English scaterian, from Proto-Germanic *skat- (“to smash, scatter”). Cognate with Dutch schateren (“to burst out laughing”), Low German schateren, Albanian shkatërroj (“to destroy, devastate”). Doublet of scatter.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??æt.?(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??æt.?/
• Rhymes: -æt?(?)
• Hyphenation: shat?ter

Verb

shatter (third-person singular simple present shatters, present participle shattering, simple past and past participle shattered)

1. (transitive) to violently break something into pieces.

2. (transitive) to destroy or disable something.
3. (intransitive) to smash, or break into tiny pieces.
4. (transitive) to dispirit or emotionally defeat
   • 1984 Martyn Burke, The commissar's report, p36

     Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.

   • 1992 Rose Gradym "Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!" Weekly World News, Vol. 13, No. 38 (23 June, 1992), p41

     A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.

   • 2006 A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution, p163

     The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.
5. (obsolete) To scatter about.

Translations

Noun

shatter (countable and uncountable, plural shatters)

1. (countable, archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.
   • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Directions to Servants

     it will fall upon the glass of the sconce, and break it into shatters

2. A (pine) needle.

   Synonym: shat (Maryland, Delaware)

   • 1834, The Southern Agriculturist and Register of Rural Affairs: Adapted to the Southern Section of the United States, page 421:

     My usual habit is, as soon as I get my wheat trodden out, and my corn secured in the fall, to litter my farm yard (and if my cultivation is far off, I select some warm spot near the field) with leaves and pine shatters, (preferring the former) ...

   • 1859, Samuel W. Cole, The New England Farmer, page 277:

     They are preserved in cellars, or out of doors in kilns. The method of fixing them is to raise the ground a few inches, where they are to be placed, and cover with pine shatters to the depth of six inches or more.

   • 2012, Marguerite Henry, Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, Simon and Schuster (?ISBN), page 95:

     Grandpa snapped his fingers. "Consarn it all!" he sputtered. "I plumb forgot the pine shatters. Paul and Maureen, you gather some nice smelly pine shatters from off 'n the floor of the woods. Nothin' makes a better cushion for pony feet as pine shatters ..."

3. (uncountable, slang) A form of concentrated cannabis.

Translations

Anagrams

• Hatters, Threats, hatters, stareth, threats