Make Your Point > Archived Issues > QUASH
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pronounce
QUASH:
Say it "KWOSH."
It rhymes with "Josh."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Quash and squash can mean the same thing. They look so much alike because they come from different forms of the same Latin verb: quatere, meaning "to shake, or to strike."
Quatere also gave us the words concussion and percussion--it's pretty easy to see why. (By the way, can you recall the adjective form of the word percussion? As in "After that first snowfall, in the glorious silence, I hated to disrupt it with the percuss___ scrape of my snow shovel.")
Quatere even gave us the word discussion: to discuss something is, etymologically speaking, to shake it apart.
See if you can recall one more word that came from quatere. It's re___cuss___s, a plural noun meaning "effects or consequences that are usually unwanted and accidental." They're what shakes out. Or, what shakes back out at you.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
To quash something is to crush it, to smash it down, or to completely destroy it.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Verb, the transitive kind: "They're hoping to quash these protests."
Other forms:
Quashed, quashing, quashable.
how to use it:
Pick this formal, dramatic word to strike a serious tone.
Use it to talk about people, decisions, actions, threats, commands, and events that quash things.
What kinds of things get quashed?
Sometimes it's legal stuff, like lawsuits, subpoenas, and convictions. "They quashed the arrest warrants." "They quashed the motion to dismiss the case."
Sometimes it's actions or efforts. "It quashed their attempts to reform the system." "It quashed the publication of the book."
But most of the time, what gets quashed is some kind of feeling, information, or other abstract thing: news, hopes, plans, theories, fears, worries, speculation, dissent, unrest, rumors, power, influence, etc.
examples:
"But the spirit of enterprise then prevailing was not to be easily quashed."
— Frederick Whymper, The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism, 1877
"In a dark year, it felt like a bright moment: technology drawing attention to a vital subject, despite the best efforts of the ruling party to quash the discussion."
— Casey Newton, The Verge, 8 July 2016
has this page helped you understand "quash"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "quash" without saying "crush" or "quell."
try it out:
J. D. Biersdorfer wrote for the New York Times that "because of abuse and misuse by overzealous advertisers and malicious software, pop-up windows are often quashed by default in a web browser's settings."
That makes sense, right? Pop-up ads are the worst. Heck, yeah: let's quash them by default.
What's something else you'd like to quash from the get-go? Something else on the computer--or something at home, or at school or work?
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is "Faces & Feelings."
If the word you're studying were a facial expression, what would it look like? Maybe one of the seven universal facial expressions, the ones identified by the psychologist Paul Ekman.
In each issue, take a handful of words and assign each to an emotion it inspires. I'll list my answers at the bottom of each issue. Yours might be different from mine, which is okay--words, and emotions, are complex and personal! The goal here is just to interact with our words, to tie them more securely into memory by connecting them to emotion and to the face.
Try this set today. Match each face on the left to a term on the right:
obtuse
ominous
onus
openhanded
opportune
opprobrium
otiose
review this word:
1. A near opposite of QUASH is
A. REFINE.
B. PROFESS.
C. ENCOURAGE.
2. The key to using the word "quash" is to apply it _____. Talk about quashing, for example, _____.
A. reverently .. Biblical figures and passages
B. concretely .. chunks of avocado into guacamole
C. abstractly .. debate, discussion, or expectations
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Say it "KWOSH."
Quash and squash can mean the same thing. They look so much alike because they come from different forms of the same Latin verb: quatere, meaning "to shake, or to strike."
To quash something is to crush it, to smash it down, or to completely destroy it.
Part of speech:
Pick this formal, dramatic word to strike a serious tone.
"But the spirit of enterprise then prevailing was not to be easily quashed."
Explain the meaning of "quash" without saying "crush" or "quell."
J. D. Biersdorfer wrote for the New York Times that "because of abuse and misuse by overzealous advertisers and malicious software, pop-up windows are often quashed by default in a web browser's settings."
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
1. A near opposite of QUASH is
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
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