skoosh

English

Etymology 1

Apparently imitative of a squirting or squishing sound.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /skuːʃ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːʃ, -oʊʃ

Noun

skoosh (plural skooshes)

1. (informal, chiefly Scotland) A squirt (of liquid).
   • 2002, Hugh Robinson, Back Across the Fields of Yesterday, →ISBN:

     But Mrs Strain ducked and dodged and weaved, keeping the bucket steady between her feet and managing to give the two or three cats running about the place a skoosh of milk straight from the udder into their mouth.

   • 2012, Harry Morris, The Last Night on the Beat: The Best of Harry the Polis, Black & White Publishing, →ISBN:

     1 pint of filtered water
     2 dessert spoons of sugar (or honey)
     4 nobs of butter (or one big lump)
     1 big skoosh of lemon juice, hand squeezed
     6 large free range eggs.

2. (informal, chiefly Scotland) Something very easy; a piece of cake.
   • 2013, Joe Pieri, The Big Men:

     After what we had learned in the Navy, police training was a skoosh.

Verb

skoosh (third-person singular simple present skooshes, present participle skooshing, simple past and past participle skooshed)

1. (informal, chiefly Scotland) To squirt.
   • 2001, Andrew Campbell, Dead Letter House, Neil Wilson Pub Limited:

     Untouchable. I am untouchable. I cannot touch. But in these other states, I am the citizen of many nations. To that woman on holiday in Millport many, many years ago, I am that cheeky wee boy who skooshed her in the face with my water pistol […]

   • 2006, Catherine Forde, Firestarter, Egmont Books, →ISBN:

     She positions herself in the middle of each room, then sprays every surface as if she's Lara Croft holding one of those paintball guns. By the time I've mopped up all the puddles of polish she's skooshed on Mum's good furniture, […]

   • 2008, Charlie Allan, The Truth Tells Twice: The Life of a Buchan Farm, Birlinn:

     She shut the doors, covered the food and then skooshed DDT at them. That killed them all and we were choked but fly-free for a few minutes. I have no doubt Mrs Low's was the healthier option - however grotesque it may have been.

   • 2017, Bernard MacLaverty, chapter 8, in Midwinter Break, page 160:

     She skooshed some foam from a spray can onto her hand and applied it to her hair.
     "What's that?" said Gerry.
     "Styling mousse."

2. (informal) To squish, to smoosh.
   • 2004, Don Strachan, King of Diamonds, Penthe Pub, →ISBN:

     Eternal Returnists believe that after you die you must return as every fly you ever swatted, every ant you ever skooshed, every mosquito, every spider, every animal you ever roared over on the highway with your Harley, whether you knew it or not […]

   • 2012, Lisa Harkrader, The Adventures of Beanboy, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 151:

     I tore my mayonnaise packet open with my teeth, squirted it on the bun, and skooshed it around to coat the alleged patty. Noah tapped his finger on my lunch tray. "You going to eat your fruit cup? You should."

Etymology 2

Variant of skosh.

Noun

skoosh (plural skooshes)

1. (informal) A smidge, a small amount.

   Synonyms: skosh, scooch; see also Thesaurus:modicum

   • 1995, James C. Schaap, In the Silence There are Ghosts: A Novel, Baker Publishing Group, →ISBN:

     […] his wife, who might have outweighed him by forty pounds, wore a cut-off sweatshirt over a red blouse, and what seemed to be men's Levis, cut with a bit more than "a skoosh more room," as the ads say.

   • 2018, Melissa Radke, Eat Cake. Be Brave., Grand Central Publishing, →ISBN:

     “Not even a little problem, just a skoosh of a problem, really.”

   • 2020, Sara Hanover, The New Improved Sorceress, Penguin, →ISBN:

     Off-balance myself, I skidded to one knee and got up just a skoosh slower than Beastie did.

Anagrams

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