different between strawberry vs cushion

English

Etymology

From Middle English strawbery, strauberi, from Old English str?awber?e, corresponding to straw +? berry. The word for straw was derived from a verbal participle and thus meant "(that which is) strewn", hence the applicability to berries growing as if they have been “strewn” about the ground.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?st???b(?)?i/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?st????b??i/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /?st???b??i/

Noun

strawberry (countable and uncountable, plural strawberries)

1. The sweet, usually red, edible fruit of certain plants of the genus Fragaria.

   They went to pick strawberries today.

2. Any plant of the genus Fragaria (that bears such fruit).

   She has the best strawberry patch I've ever seen.
3. A dark pinkish red colour, like that of the fruit; strawberry red.

4. (rare) Something resembling a strawberry, especially a reddish bruise, birthmark, or infantile hemangioma (naevus).
5. (US, slang) A prostitute who exchanges sexual services for crack cocaine.
   • 1992, Kathleen Boyle, Homeless crack cocaine abusers (page 40)

     […] infamous in Los Angeles through media reports: the crack houses and "strawberries" (women who exchange sex for crack) […]

   • 1997, Peter Collier, ?David Horowitz, The Race Card (page 91)

     The desperate addiction associated with the drug has made "strawberries" — prostitutes who work for crack — fixtures of the […]

Synonyms

• earthberry

Translations

Adjective

strawberry (not comparable)

1. Containing or having the flavor of strawberries.

   I'd like a large strawberry shake.

2. Flavored with ethyl methylphenylglycidate, an artificial compound which is said to resemble the taste of strawberries.
3. Of a color similar to ripened strawberries.

   The strawberry lipstick makes her look younger.

Translations

Verb

strawberry (third-person singular simple present strawberries, present participle strawberrying, simple past and past participle strawberried)

1. (intransitive) To gather strawberries.
   • 1994, New England Review (volume 16, page 35)

     We strawberried in Michigan woods with our fat nanny, and in spring we gathered sand dollars on Daytona, passed smiling into Kodachrome.

2. (intransitive) To turn a dark pinkish-red.
   • 1986, Les Whitten, Sometimes a Hero (page 352)

     My hips and elbows were strawberrying painfully.

Derived terms

Descendants

See also

• arbutus
• Carolina allspice
• hautboy
• (reds) red; blood red, brick red, burgundy, cardinal, carmine, carnation, cerise, cherry, cherry red, Chinese red, cinnabar, claret, crimson, damask, fire brick, fire engine red, flame, flamingo, fuchsia, garnet, geranium, gules, hot pink, incarnadine, Indian red, magenta, maroon, misty rose, nacarat, oxblood, pillar-box red, pink, Pompeian red, poppy, raspberry, red violet, rose, rouge, ruby, ruddy, salmon, sanguine, scarlet, shocking pink, stammel, strawberry, Turkey red, Venetian red, vermillion, vinaceous, vinous, violet red, wine ^{(Category: en:Reds)}

References

• strawberry at OneLook Dictionary Search
• strawberry in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• strawberry on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Fragaria on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Fragaria on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

English

Etymology

From Middle English cusshon, cuschen, quesshon, from later Old French coissin (modern coussin), from Vulgar Latin *cox?nus (“seat pad”), derived from Latin coxa (“hip, thigh”) with the suffix possibly after Latin pulv?nus (“pillow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k???n/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

cushion (countable and uncountable, plural cushions)

1. A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support; for sitting on, kneeling on, resting one's head on etc.
2. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
   1. A pad on which gilders cut gold leaf.
   2. A mass of steam in the end of the cylinder of a steam engine to receive the impact of the piston.
   4. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The lip around a table in cue sports which absorbs some of the impact of the billiard balls and bounces them back.
   5. The pillow used in making bone lace.
   6. An engraver's pad.
   7. (historical) The rubber of an electrical machine.
   8. (historical) A pad supporting a woman's hair.
3. (figuratively) a sufficient quantity of an intangible object (like points or minutes) to allow for some of those points, for example, to be lost without hurting one's chances for successfully completing an objective.
   1. (finance, countable, uncountable) Money kept in reserve.
      • 2007, Belverd Needles, Marian Powers, Financial Accounting: Media Enhanced (page 826)

        Interest coverage is important because it is an indicator of how much cushion a company has in making its interest payments.

      • 2013, Stijn Claessens, Kirsten Forbes, International Financial Contagion (page 85)

        If one of the banks has a significant enough cushion of capital and a strong enough balance sheet, then it would not experience a bank run, and the domino effect in panel A would not have occurred.

4. (obsolete) A riotous dance, formerly common at weddings.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Descendants

Translations

See also

• pillow
• squab

Verb

cushion (third-person singular simple present cushions, present participle cushioning, simple past and past participle cushioned)

1. To furnish with cushions.

   to cushion a sofa

2. To seat or place on, or as on a cushion.
   • 1734, Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, A Dissertation on Parties

     How many doughty monarchs, in later and more polite ages, would have slept in cottages, and have worked in falls, instead of inhabiting palaces, and being cushioned up in thrones, if this rule of government had continued in force ?

3. To absorb or deaden the impact of.

   to cushion a blow

   • 1903, Edward Porritt, "Poynings' Law", The Unreformed House of Commons Vol.II p.429 (CUP):

     the development of popular interest in Parliament made it less possible for the Privy Council in Dublin to cushion a bill which the Commons had presented to the Lord Lieutenant

4. To conceal or cover up, as under a cushion.

Translations

References