Word
mush
/ˈməʃ/
Definition
n. a soft, wet, and sticky type of soil or rock that is easy to crush. It is often found in areas where the ground is very wet or where the earth has been broken down by water.
n. a soft, wet, and easily crushed mass of earth or rock, typically found in areas of high moisture or decomposed material. Often used in geological contexts to describe unstable or poorly consolidated sediments.
Examples
“The heavy rain turned the path into a thick mush.”
“The hikers had to be careful not to sink into the soft mush of the marshy ground.”
“Geologists identified the layer of clay as a dense mush, indicating that the area had been subjected to significant pressure and water saturation over several geological epochs.”
Examples
simple
“The heavy rain turned the path into a thick mush.”
contextual
“The hikers had to be careful not to sink into the soft mush of the marshy ground.”
complex
“Geologists identified the layer of clay as a dense mush, indicating that the area had been subjected to significant pressure and water saturation over several geological epochs.”
Real-World Examples
“Food can get a bit mushed and squished when it is canned.” Etymology
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”).
From Old High German muos and Goidelic mus (“a pap”) or muss (“a porridge”), or any thick preparation of fruit.
Believed to be a contraction of mush on, from Michif, in turn a corruption of French marche or marchons!, the cry of voyageurs and coureurs de bois to their dogs. Marche and marchons are respectively the second-person singular and first-person plural imperative forms of marcher (“to move; to travel; to walk”), from Middle French marcher, from Old French marchier, from Frankish markōn, ultimately from Proto-Germanic markōną (“to mark; to notice”).
Simple contraction of mushroom.
From Angloromani mush (“man”), from Romani mursh, from Sanskrit मनुष्य (manuṣya, “human being, man”).
Possibly from mush (“to drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across snow”, verb), or mush (“(slang, rare) umbrella”, noun) (a clipping of mushroom, from the similar appearance; referring to drivers shielding passengers with umbrellas in rainy weather).
Compare French moucheter (“to cut with small cuts”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
NOUN
ADJECTIVE
Idioms
01. mush up
Domain
- Exam level
- CambridgeCambridgeCambridge English QualificationsThe exam suite from Cambridge University Press & Assessment, from A1 Movers up to C2 Proficiency. The benchmark names double as CEFR labels.C1 AdvancedIELTSIELTSInternational English Language Testing SystemThe 0–9 band test co-owned by the British Council, IDP, and Cambridge. Used for university entry, work, and migration.7.0–8.0TOEFL iBTTOEFL iBTTest of English as a Foreign Language, Internet-Based TestETS's academic English test, the standard route for US university admissions. Scored 0–120, with a 1–6 scale since 2026.1–6 scale: 5.0–5.595–113TOEICTOEICTest of English for International CommunicationETS's workplace English test, big in Japan and Korea. Listening & Reading scores 10–990 and tops out at C1.945–990
- Frequency
- Occasional
- Level
- C1 · Advanced
- Updated
- アルファベット
- 読み方の一覧 →
QR code
englishreference.com/q/mush