squashy

adjectiveB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,867 of 15,258Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Squashy means giving way softly when pressed. A squashy sofa, squashy tomatoes, a squashy cushion.

It is informal and affectionate about furniture and faintly critical about fruit, and only context tells you which is meant. It says the thing gives way and comes back, which is what separates it from mushy, where nothing comes back.

Definitions of squashy

1adjectivesquashyGiving way softly when pressed.B2+
“She sank into the big squashy sofa and closed her eyes.”

squashy is a texture.

Where it comes from

Latin
ex
Vulgar Latin
*excoāctiāre
Old French
esquacher
Middle English
squachen
English
squash
English, today
squashy

Built from

escasser · Old French — to crush, shatter, destroy, break
quassare · Latin — to shatter

From squash + -y. squash comes from Middle English squachen, squatchen, from Old French esquacher, escachier, from Vulgar Latin excoāctiāre, from Latin ex + coāctāre. Probably influenced by Middle English quashen, quassen, from Old French esquasser, escasser (“to crush, shatter, destroy, break”), from Vulgar Latin exquassare, from Latin ex- + quassare (“to shatter”) (see quash).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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