verb
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to subdue forcefully and completely; put down; suppress
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to annul or make void (a law, decision, etc)
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to reject (an indictment, writ, etc) as invalid
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of quash
1300–50; Middle English quashen to smash, break, overcome, suppress < Old French quasser, in part < Latin quassāre to shake (frequentative of quatere to shake; cf. concussion); in part < Late Latin cassāre to annul, derivative of Latin cassus empty, void
Explanation
Quash means to put down, stop, extinguish, and it’s usually used to talk about ideas, feelings, or political movements. You wouldn’t quash a grape underfoot; you would squash it. But if you were a military dictator, you would quash a revolution. Quash is an extreme word. It comes from the French word for smash, or shatter. If something is quashed it is completely suppressed, usually by something or someone very powerful or authoritative. If you wrote a poem and asked your favorite teacher to read it, and that teacher tore it to pieces, then your hopes were most likely quashed.
Vocabulary lists containing quash
40 SAT words Beginning with "Q"
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Scrabble: Words that Begin with Q
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Consumers are “making up for lost time,” said Quash of Euromonitor.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 10, 2023
Buying is proving resilient thanks to a phenomenon known as “revenge living,” said Carl Quash, an analyst at Euromonitor.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 10, 2023
Quash this Spirit at a Blow, without too much regard to the Expence, and it will prove œconomy in the End.
From Slate • Jun. 4, 2020
The young black veterans of the American Revolution - Cato Howe, Plato Turner, Prince Goodwin and Quamony Quash - were granted land by the town of Plymouth near the Kingston border.
From Washington Times • Mar. 19, 2016
So I is, Quash, bery t’ankful, but what’s to be dooed?
From The Rover of the Andes A Tale of Adventure on South America by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
