Squash (?), n. [Cf. Musquash.] (Zoöl.)
An American animal allied to the weasel. [Obs.] Goldsmith.
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Squash, n. [Massachusetts Indian asq, pl. asquash, raw, green, immaturate, applied to fruit and vegetables which were used when green, or without cooking; askutasquash vine apple.] (Bot.)
A plant and its fruit of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd kind.
⇒ The species are much confused. The long-neck squash is called Cucurbita verrucosa, the Barbary or China squash, C. moschata, and the great winter squash, C. maxima, but the distinctions are not clear.
Squash beetle (Zoöl.), a small American beetle (Diabrotica, or Galeruca vittata) which is often abundant and very injurious to the leaves of squash, cucumber, etc. It is striped with yellow and black. The name is applied also to other allied species. --
Squash bug (Zoöl.), a large black American hemipterous insect (Coreus, or Anasa, tristis) injurious to squash vines.
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Squash, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Squashed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Squashing.] [OE. squashen, OF. escachier, esquachier, to squash, to crush, F. écacher, perhaps from (assumed) LL. excoacticare, fr. L. ex + coactare to constrain, from cogere, coactum, to compel. Cf. Cogent, Squat, v. i.]
To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.
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Squash, n.
1.
Something soft and easily crushed; especially, an unripe pod of pease.
Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a squash is before 't is a peascod.
Shak.
2.
Hence, something unripe or soft; -- used in contempt. "This squash, this gentleman." Shak.
3.
A sudden fall of a heavy, soft body; also, a shock of soft bodies. Arbuthnot.
My fall was stopped by a terrible squash.
Swift.
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Squash (?), n.
A game much like rackets, played in a walled court with soft rubber balls and bats like tennis rackets.
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