squash, squachen

t. [O. Fr. esquacher, escacher (Fr. écacher )=to crush, to squash, from Latin ex out, fully, and coacto =to restrain, to force, from coact us, pa. par. of cogo to compel.] To crush; to beat or pre into a pulp or flat ma . "There is an unhappie bird called Æsalon, and but little with all: yet will she squash and breake the raven's egges."-P. Holland: Pliny , bk. x., ch. lxxiv. squash (1), 8. [SQUASH, v.] 1. Something soft and easily crushed or pre ed into a pulp; something unripe and soft; espec., an unripe pea-pod. "Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a squash is before it is a peascod, or a codling when it is almost an apple." -Shakesp .: Twelfth Night , i. 5. 2. A sudden fall of a heavy, soft body; a shock of soft bodies. "My fall was stopped by a terrible squash that sounded louder to my ears than the cataract of Niagara, after which I was quite in the dark."- Swift : Gulliver; Brob. dignag, ch. viii. Lemon-squash: A cooling drink made by squeezing the juice of a lemon into a tumbler, and adding pounded loaf-sugar and soda-water. ( Eng .) squash (2), s . [Ma achusetts Indian a squash = raw, green, immature, to be eaten uncooked; askuta squash vine-apple.] Bot. & Hort .: A popular name for any species of the genus Cucurbit a; spec if., Cucurbit a melopepo. Leaves cordate, obtuse, somewhat five-lobed; ten drills denticulated, or converted into small leaves; calyx with the throat much dilated; fruit flattened at both ends, with white, dry, spongy fruite which eaten with meat. It is boiled and "A selected seed, he had received from me, for that pur. pose, of squash , which is an Indian kind of pompion that grows apace." -Boyle: Works , vol. i., p. 494.