hassock
Americannoun
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a thick, firm cushion used as a footstool or for kneeling.
-
a rank tuft of coarse grass or sedge, as in a bog.
noun
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a firm upholstered cushion used for kneeling on, esp in church
-
a thick clump of grass
Etymology
Origin of hassock
before 1000; Middle English; Old English hassuc coarse grass
Explanation
A soft cushion for sitting, kneeling, or resting your feet on is a hassock. You can also call a hassock a tuffet, like Little Miss Muffet's tuffet in the nursery rhyme. One place you can find hassocks is in a church in which the congregation kneels during prayers. These hassocks are also known as kneelers. If your footrest has legs on it, it's a footstool, but if it doesn't, feel free to refer to it as a hassock. The oldest meaning of this word is "clump of grass." Experts guess that the "soft cushion" meaning of hassock came from its similarity to a soft clump of grass.
Vocabulary lists containing hassock
The Ottoman Empire: Furniture Words
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2015 Spelling Bee - Words from Round 2
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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 hassock of grass cradled his back as he looked up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2017
Jackson sat down again, and I perched on a hassock between brother and sister, separated by the glass top of a low table.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 4, 2016
Poor Nixon wouldn’t put his shoes up on a hassock unless he covered it with a towel, because it was White House furniture.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2015
The camel-hide hassock, the bouquet of used plastic flowers, and the two secondhand bedspreads were quickly snapped up.
From Time Magazine Archive
Normally she’d start spinning fantasies about an octopus’s garden and curtains of kelp and trout on the hassock but she’s giving me nothing.
From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson
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.
