mush

Etymology 1

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”). See also moose.

noun

1. A somewhat liquid mess, often of food; a soft or semisolid substance.
2. (radio) A mixture of noise produced by the harmonics of continuous-wave stations.
3. (surfing) The foam of a breaker.
   And Rincon was all about surfing. Flash back thirty-odd years, to a skinny kid on a Styrofoam belly-board, pin-wheeling out into the mush of Jacksonville Beach, Florida. 2008, Bucky McMahon, Night Diver, page 80
4. (geology) A magmatic body containing a significant proportion of crystals suspended in the liquid phase or melt.

verb

1. To squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else.
   He mushed the ingredients together.

Etymology 2

From Old High German muos and Goidelic mus (“a pap”) or muss (“a porridge”), or any thick preparation of fruit.

noun

1. A food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk; porridge.
2. (rural US) Cornmeal cooked in water and served as a porridge or as a thick sidedish like grits or mashed potatoes.
   However, they did make and sometimes even bake cornmeal mushes that could be either sweetened or fortified with fat. 2007, Andrew F. Smith, The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink

Etymology 3

Believed to be a contraction of mush on, from Michif, in turn a corruption of French marchons! and marche!, the cry of the voyageurs and coureurs de bois to their dogs.

intj

1. A directive given (usually to dogs or a horse) to start moving, or to move faster.

noun

1. A walk, especially across the snow with dogs.

verb

1. (intransitive) To walk, especially across the snow with dogs.
2. (transitive) To drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across the snow.
   Together the two men loaded and lashed the sled. They warmed their hands for the last time, pulled on their mittens, and mushed the dogs over the bank and down to the river-trail. 1910, Jack London, Burning Daylight, part 1 chapter 4

Etymology 4

Simple contraction of mushroom.

noun

1. (Quebec, slang) A magic mushroom.

Etymology 5

From Angloromani mush (“man”), from Romani mursh, from Sanskrit मनुष्य (manuṣya, “human being, man”).

noun

1. (Britain, slang, chiefly Southern England) (US, slang, chiefly Nonantum) A form of address, normally to a man.
   Oy mush, come over here and gimme a hand with the motor.
   "Hey, Mush!" Tony Pellegrino called to Michael standing on the other side of the street. Set in Nonantum, Massachusetts. 2018, Brenda Spalding, Bottle Alley, Heritage Publishing, chapter 1
2. (Britain, slang, chiefly Northern England, Australia) The face.

Etymology 6

Compare French moucheter (“to cut with small cuts”).

verb

1. (transitive) To notch, cut, or indent (cloth, etc.) with a stamp.