squeeze
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: ball-games
baseball
business
card-games
caving
games
hobbies
lifestyle
mining
sports
Etymology: From earlier squize, squise (whence also dialectal English squizzen and squeege), first attested around 1600, further origin uncertain; probably an alteration of quease (which is attested since 1550), from Middle English queisen (“to squeeze”), from Old English cwȳsan (“to crush, squeeze”), itself also of unknown origin, perhaps imitative (compare Swedish qväsa, kväsa (“to squeeze, bruise, crush; quell”), Dutch kwetsen (“to injure, hurt”), German quetschen (“to squeeze”)). Or, a blend of obsolete squiss (“to squeeze”) (whence also squash and squish) with quease. Compare also French esquicher from Old Occitan esquichar (“to press, squeeze”).
The slang expression "to put the squeeze on (someone or something)", meaning "to exert influence", is from 1711. The baseball term "squeeze play" is first recorded 1905. "Main squeeze" ("most important person") is attested from 1896, the specific meaning "one's sweetheart, lover" is attested in 1970s.
The nonstandard strong forms squoze and squozen, attested dialectally since at least the mid-19th century, are by analogy with freeze.
Inflected forms:
form: squeezes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: squeezing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: squeezed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: squoze
pos: verb
tags: nonstandard
past
form: squeezed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: squoze
pos: verb
tags: nonstandard
participle
past
form: squozen
pos: verb
tags: nonstandard
participle
past
form: squeezes
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To apply pressure to from two or more sides at once.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I squeezed the ball between my hands.
Please don't squeeze the toothpaste tube in the middle.
"Over there—by the rock," Steele muttered, with his brush between his teeth, squeezing out raw sienna, and keeping his eyes fixed on Betty Flanders's back.
gloss: To embrace closely; to give a tight hug to.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To fit into a tight place.
pos: verb
tags: ambitransitive
examples: I managed to squeeze the car into that parking space.
Can you squeeze through that gap?
I squeezed myself through the crowd.
It was an omen of things to come as in the 56th minute the visitors took the lead after a mix-up between Skrtel and Sotirios Kyrgiakos allowed Ebanks-Blake's through-ball to squeeze between them.
Could he not squeeze under the seat of a carriage? He had seen this method adopted by schoolboys, when the journey- money provided by thoughtful parents had been diverted to other and better ends.
gloss: To remove something with difficulty, or apparent difficulty.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He squeezed some money out of his wallet.
gloss: To barely manage to.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I managed to squeeze through the exam with a D.
gloss: To put in a difficult position by presenting two or more choices.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I'm being squeezed between my job and my volunteer work.
At a time when Mr. Cameron is being squeezed from both sides — from the right by members of his own party and by the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe U.K. Independence Party, and from the left by his Liberal Democrat coalition partners — the move seemed uncharacteristically clunky.
gloss: To oppress with hardships, burdens, or taxes; to harass.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: a Civil War where People must expect to be crush'd and squeez'd in the Consequence
However he lost out, as other business interests whom he had alienated by his efforts to squeeze every penny of profit from the canal, supported the construction of the railway.
gloss: To attempt to score a runner from third by bunting.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Jones squeezed in Smith with a perfect bunt.
gloss: An instance of squeezing.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: to give something a squeeze
Dip your sponge into the water, tehn turn it over and dip it again. That gets both sides wet. Now give it a squeeze to get most of the water out—but not all of it! You'll get the feel of how much water you need in your sponge as you practice with the clay.
gloss: A close or tight fit.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A difficult position.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: I'm in a tight squeeze right now when it comes to my free time.
There is a growing recognition that, as the population ages and the squeeze on NHS resources continues, better ways of supporting older people outside hospital need to be developed.
gloss: A hug or other affectionate grasp.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: a gentle squeeze on the arm
gloss: A romantic partner.
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
examples: I want to be your main squeeze.
“No, Mona. Her new squeeze is one of Wage's boys.”
He spent nights cruising queer bars near the pad, saw Wiltsie at the dives, but always in the company of his squeeze, a guy he called 'Duane.'
His young squeeze had just backed out and had not seen the assault on her “sugar daddy” when it happened!
But even considering that, he might have been a bit more restrained if he hadn't run into his former sexy squeeze, Penny Atieno.
gloss: An illicit alcoholic drink made by squeezing Sterno through cheesecloth, etc., and mixing the result with fruit juice.
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
gloss: The act of bunting in an attempt to score a runner from third.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The game ended in exciting fashion with a failed squeeze.
gloss: A play that forces an opponent to discard a card that gives up one or more tricks.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A traversal of a narrow passage.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: It was a tight squeeze, but I got through to the next section of the cave.
The most notorious squeezes have names: the Gun Barrel, Jam Crack, the Electric Armpit Crawl, Devil's Pinch.
Prior to going back out to Mystery Cave again we spent a lot of time preparing. We made a squeeze box, which is a wooden box the opening of which can be adjusted in size. We could then crawl through the opening and measure to see how tight of a squeeze we could fit through.
gloss: A moulding, cast or other impression of an object, chiefly a design, inscription etc., especially by pressing wet paper onto the surface and peeling off when dry.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Nollekens, finding his wife always benefited by these visits, never refused White a squeeze of a patera, or any thing that would answer his purpose; […] White […] had turned his wine-cellars into manufactories for the produce of cast coins, and moderns squeezes from Roman lamps.
gloss: The gradual closing of workings by the weight of the overlying strata.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The situation experienced by a middleman when pressured from both sides, especially financially.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
uncountable
examples: Thus was established a powerful Chinese combination, which maintained itself by submitting to a heavy "squeeze" at the hands of the Viceroy and Governor of Canton on the one hand and of the Hoppo on the other.
gloss: A bribe, fee, or extortionary price paid to a middleman, especially in China; the practice of requiring such a bribe or fee.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
uncountable
examples: If the licence […] was costly, it secured to them uninterrupted and extraordinary pecuniary advantages; but on the other hand it subjected them to 'calls' or 'squeezes' for contributions to public works, […] for the relief of districts suffering from scarcity […] as well as for the often imaginary […] damage caused by the overflowing of the 'Yangtse Keang' or the 'Yellow River.'
The mattress shop had been bought with the proceeds of squeeze obtained by him from a former American employer.
They were no colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect.
gloss: A person's neck.
pos: noun
tags: UK
countable
obsolete
slang
uncountable
examples: "Got his description putty close: Short black 'air, black whiskers, with a crips^([sic]) curl at the hedges; a white choker, tight round his squeeze; dressed in black, and orful hugly," remarked the policeman.
Synonyms: condense
Related words: squash
squeegee
squish
Derived words: exsqueeze me
nonsqueezing
oversqueezed
resqueeze
scrunch
scruze
squeezable
squeeze blood from a turnip
squeeze blood out of a turnip
squeeze box
squeezebox
squeezedness
squeeze-grape
squeeze in
squeeze into
squeeze off
squeeze one out
squeeze out
squeeze play
squeezer
squeeze stile
squeeze the pips
squeeze under
squeeze up
squeezingly
squeezy
squizzle
synchrosqueezed
unsqueeze
coastal squeeze
credit squeeze
juice is worth the squeeze
put the squeeze on
safety squeeze
short squeeze
squeeze ball
squeeze bore
squeeze-bore
squeeze boxer
squeeze chute
squeeze machine
squeeze theorem
squeeze zoom
suicide squeeze
tight squeeze
winkle squeeze
Translations: