mushy

UK/ˈmʌ.ʃi/US/ˈmʌ.ʃi/

adjectiveB22 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,861 of 15,258leans spoken

Mushy means so soft it has lost all shape. Mushy peas, gone mushy, mushy vegetables.

In cooking it is nearly always a fault — the exception being mushy peas, a northern English dish where the collapse is the whole point. Figuratively mushy means sentimental: a mushy film, mushy talk. Note mush; and that vegetables go mushy when the pectin holding their cell walls together breaks down in heat.

Definitions of mushy

1adjectivemushySo soft it has lost all shape.B2
“The vegetables were boiled for so long that they went mushy.”
- Said"The peas have gone mushy; I left them boiling far too long."
- WrittenThe apples cooked down to something mushy and sweet that nobody could name and everybody ate.
- UsedDrain the pasta a minute early or it will be mushy by the time it reaches the table.
- ContrastMushy, not soft. Soft still holds together; mushy has given up its shape entirely. soft →
- Not thisMashed potato is not mushy, because mash was meant to be like that. Mushy is soft by accident.
- Exchange"How are the carrots?""Mushy. You can spread them."
- SimplyThe rice is mushy. It is too wet.
Patternmushy + noun (peas, banana, texture) · go / turn mushy · mush
2adjectivesentimentalSentimental.C1
“I cried all the way through that mushy film about the lost dog.”

mushy is a quality of softness.

Remember it

MUSHy → turned to MUSH

Boil the vegetables too long and they turn to mush: soft, wet, and no shape left at all.

Where it comes from

Middle English
mos — mush, pulp, porridge
English
mush
English, today
mushy

From mush + -y. mush Probably a variant of mash, or from a dialectal variant of Middle English mos (“mush, pulp, porridge”); compare Middle English appelmos (“applesauce”), from Old English mōs (“food, victuals, porridge, mush”), from Proto-West Germanic mōs, from Proto-Germanic mōsą (“porridge, food”), from Proto-Indo-European meh₂d- (“wet, fat, dripping”). Cognate with Scots moosh (“mush”), Dutch moes (“pulp, mush, porridge”), German Mus (“jam, puree, mush”), Swedish mos (“pulp, mash, mush”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Definitions of mushy

1adjectivemushySo soft it has lost all shape.B2

“The vegetables were boiled for so long that they went mushy.”

Said"The peas have gone mushy; I left them boiling far too long."
WrittenThe apples cooked down to something mushy and sweet that nobody could name and everybody ate.
UsedDrain the pasta a minute early or it will be mushy by the time it reaches the table.
ContrastMushy, not soft. Soft still holds together; mushy has given up its shape entirely. soft →
Not thisMashed potato is not mushy, because mash was meant to be like that. Mushy is soft by accident.
Exchange"How are the carrots?""Mushy. You can spread them."
SimplyThe rice is mushy. It is too wet.

Patternmushy + noun (peas, banana, texture) · go / turn mushy · mush

2adjectivesentimentalSentimental.C1

“I cried all the way through that mushy film about the lost dog.”

mushy is a quality of softness.