Square"-toes` (?), n. A precise person; -- used contemptuously or
jocularly. Thackeray.
Squar"ish, a. Nearly square. Pennant.
Squar*rose" (? or ?; 277), a. [L. squarrosus (perhaps) scurfy, scabby.]
Ragged or full of lose scales or projecting parts; rough; jagged; as:
(a) (Bot. & Zoöl.) Consisting of scales widely divaricating; having
scales, small leaves, or other bodies, spreading widely from the axis
on which they are crowded; -- said of a calyx or stem. (b) (Bot.)
Divided into shreds or jags, raised above the plane of the leaf, and
not parallel to it; said of a leaf. (c) (Zoöl.) Having scales spreading
every way, or standing upright, or at right angles to the surface; --
said of a shell.
Squarrose-slashed (Bot.), doubly slashed, with the smaller divisions at
right angles to the others, as a leaf. Landley.
Squar*ro`so-den"tate (?), a. (Bot.) Having the teeth bent out of the
plane of the lamina; -- said of a leaf.
Squar"rous (? or ?), a. Squarrose.
Squar"ru*lose` (?), a. [Dim. of squarrose.] (Bot.) Somewhat squarrose;
slightly squarrose. Gray.
Squash (?), n. [Cf. Musquash.] (Zoöl.) An American animal allied to the
weasel. [Obs.] Goldsmith.
Squash, n. [Massachusetts Indian asq, pl. asquash, raw, green,
immaturate, applied to fruit and vegetables which were used when green,
or without cooking; askutasquash vine apple.] (Bot.) A plant and its
fruit of the genus Cucurbita, or gourd kind.
The species are much confused. The long-neck squash is called Cucurbita
verrucosa, the Barbary or China squash, C. moschata, and the great
winter squash, C. maxima, but the distinctions are not clear.
Squash beetle (Zoöl.), a small American beetle (Diabrotica, or Galeruca
vittata) which is often abundant and very injurious to the leaves of
squash, cucumber, etc. It is striped with yellow and black. The name is
applied also to other allied species. -- Squash bug (Zoöl.), a large
black American hemipterous insect (Coreus, or Anasa, tristis) injurious
to squash vines.
Squash, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Squashed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Squashing.]
[OE. squashen, OF. escachier, esquachier, to squash, to crush, F.
écacher, perhaps from (assumed) LL. excoacticare, fr. L. ex + coactare
to constrain, from cogere, coactum, to compel. Cf. Cogent, Squat, v.
i.] To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.
Squash, n. 1. Something soft and easily crushed; especially, an unripe
pod of pease.
Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a
squash is before 't is a peascod.
Shak.
2. Hence, something unripe or soft; -- used in contempt. "This squash,
this gentleman." Shak.
3. A sudden fall of a heavy, soft body; also, a shock of soft bodies.
Arbuthnot.
My fall was stopped by a terrible squash.
Swift.
Squash"er (?), n. One who, or that which, squashes.
Squash"i*ness (?), n. The quality or state of being squashy, or soft.
Squash"y (?), a. Easily squashed; soft.
Squat (?), n. (Zoöl.) The angel fish (Squatina angelus).
Squat, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Squatted; p. pr. & vb. n. Squatting.] [OE.
squatten to crush, OF. esquater, esquatir (cf. It. quatto squat,
cowering), perhaps fr. L. ex + coactus, p. p. cogere to drive or urge
together. See Cogent, Squash, v. t.] 1. To sit down upon the hams or
heels; as, the savages squatted near the fire.
2. To sit close to the ground; to cower; to stoop, or lie close, to
escape observation, as a partridge or rabbit.
3. To settle on another's land without title; also, to settle on common
or public lands.