QUASH
What does "QUASH" mean?
To reject or void by legal procedure, or to forcibly suppress or put down.
Meanings
- To annul or set aside a legal decision, charge, or verdict. The appeals court quashed the conviction on a technicality. technical
- To suppress or crush completely, as a rebellion or rumor. The government quashed the uprising within days.
Did you know?
- When a court quashes a verdict and when a state quashes a revolt, the same spelling masks two Latin ancestors: 'cassare', meaning to annul, and 'quassare', meaning to shatter - which English fused into one word.
Word origin
Two strands merged: 'to annul' from Old French 'quasser' / Medieval Latin 'cassare' (to annul), and 'to crush' from Old French 'quasser', from Latin 'quassare' meaning 'to shatter'.
Remember it
QUASH sounds like 'squash' with the S removed - and to quash is to squash a charge or revolt flat.
A little poem
A judge's pen, a soldier's heel-
two different weights, one verb
for the silence that comes after.
tercet
Wordplay
- The vegetable gardener became a lawyer. Now when a case is weak, he doesn't just squash it - he quashes it.
What it teaches
There is a difference between ending a thing and overpowering it, though the loser rarely feels it.
Quick facts
What does QUASH mean?
To reject or void by legal procedure, or to forcibly suppress or put down.
Is QUASH a valid word?
Yes — QUASH is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is QUASH?
QUASH has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does QUASH come from?
Two strands merged: 'to annul' from Old French 'quasser' / Medieval Latin 'cassare' (to annul), and 'to crush' from Old French 'quasser', from Latin 'quassare' meaning 'to shatter'.
What can QUASH teach us?
There is a difference between ending a thing and overpowering it, though the loser rarely feels it.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.