squeeze
/skwiːz/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.94 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "Start squeezing gently, without moving the bag at first (to form a wide base for the stem), then raise the bag as you squeeze. Continue to raise the bag after you’ve stopped squeezing, to form a tall point."
- "I managed to squeeze the car into that parking space."
- "Can you squeeze through that gap?"
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: queisen, cwȳsan