slush
Americannoun
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partly melted snow.
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liquid mud; watery mire.
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waste, as fat, grease, or other refuse, from the galley of a ship.
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a mixture of grease and other materials for lubricating.
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silly, sentimental, or weakly emotional talk or writing.
romantic slush.
verb (used with object)
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to splash with slush.
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to grease, polish, or cover with slush.
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to fill or cover with mortar or cement.
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to wash with a large quantity of water, as by dashing it on.
noun
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any watery muddy substance, esp melting snow
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informal sloppily sentimental language
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nautical waste fat from the galley of a ship
verb
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to make one's way through or as if through slush
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(intr) to make a slushing sound
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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slushsimple
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slushessimple
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have slushedperfect
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has slushedperfect
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am slushingprogressive
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are slushingprogressive
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is slushingprogressive
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have been slushingperfect progressive
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has been slushingperfect progressive
Past
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slushedsimple
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had slushedperfect
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was slushingprogressive
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were slushingprogressive
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had been slushingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slush
1635–45; apparently cognate with Norwegian slusk slops, Swedish slask mud, slops
Explanation
Slush is messy melted snow, a mixture of ice and water. If you forget to wear your waterproof boots, you'll want to watch out for the slush as you walk through the city in February. Slush forms when snow melts slightly, leaving behind a substance that's similar to snow, but wetter. A sweet, icy drink is also a slush or a slushy, while a "slush pile" is a heap of manuscripts and letters that are sent, unsolicited, to a publisher. And a "slush fund" is either an extra, backup bank account, or a secret one full of illegally obtained money. One thing is for sure: slush is messy.
Vocabulary lists containing slush
"It Happened in Montgomery"
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"Abuela Invents the Zero" and "Karate"
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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.
A two-year-old girl fell unconscious and had to be hospitalised after drinking a Slush Puppie.
From BBC • Jul. 31, 2024
Or you can head over to your local Sonic Drive-In and order a Pickle Juice Slush.
From Salon • Sep. 2, 2022
Sonic Popping Candy Slush Last summer, Sonic Drive-In added Nerds candy to its list of ingredients in Slushes, to the excitement of sugar-high-seeking customers everywhere.
From Time • Jun. 3, 2015
The surface of the Alpine courses looked like they’d been poured out of a Slush Puppie machine.
From Washington Post • Feb. 14, 2014
A Slush Puppie machine makes cups of snow in felt-pen colors, but not in March.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
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.
