mush

¹ American  

[muhsh, moosh] / mʌʃ, mʊʃ /

noun

1. meal, especially cornmeal, boiled in water or milk until it forms a thick, soft mass, or until it is stiff enough to mold into a loaf for slicing and frying.

2. any thick, soft mass.

3. mawkish sentimentality or amorousness.

4. anything unpleasantly or contemptibly lacking in coherence, force, dignity, etc..

   His entire argument was simply mush.

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verb (used with object)

1. to squeeze or crush; compress.

   to mush all the candy together in a sticky ball.

   Synonyms:

   smush, mash

mush ² American  

[muhsh] / mʌʃ /

verb (used without object)

1. to go or travel, especially over snow with a dog team and sled.

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verb (used with object)

1. to drive or spur on (sled dogs or a sled drawn by dogs).

interjection

1. go! (used as an order to start or speed up a dog team)

noun

1. a trip or journey, especially across snow and ice with a dog team.

mush ¹ British  

/ mʌʃ /

noun

1. a soft pulpy mass or consistency

2. a thick porridge made from corn meal

3. informal cloying sentimentality

4. radio interference in reception, esp a hissing noise

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verb

1. (tr) to reduce (a substance) to a soft pulpy mass

mush ² British  

/ mʌʃ /

interjection

1. an order to dogs in a sled team to start up or go faster

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verb

1. to travel by or drive a dog sled

2. (intr) to travel on foot, esp with snowshoes

noun

1. a journey with a dogsled

mush ³ British  

/ mʊʃ /

noun

1. a slang word for face

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mush ⁴ British  

/ mʊʃ /

noun

1. slang a familiar or contemptuous term of address

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Other Word Forms

• musher noun

Etymology

Origin of mush¹

An Americanism dating back to 1665–75; obscurely related to mash ¹

Origin of mush²

First recorded in 1860–65; perhaps originally as phrasal verb mush on!, from Canadian French, French marchons! “let's go!”; march ¹

Example Sentences

They put hot rocks into their tightly woven baskets, along with food like acorn mush, to bring the contents to boil.

From Los Angeles Times

He knew Joshua was the man under pressure here: If the former Brit wonder didn’t mush Paul into the ropes, it would be considered an embarrassing disaster.

From The Wall Street Journal

“It’s kind of like mushing up the education into your applesauce — mushing it up in the beer.”

From Los Angeles Times

"It'll become just another piece of frozen mush that just going to lose a lot of market share."

From BBC

Here in Chicago, every coffee shop worth its salt now ladles out some steaming permutation of oat mush with a swirl of tahini or jam, SQIRL-style.

From Salon