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”).
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) A somewhat liquid mess, often of food; a soft or semisolid substance.
His food is of the coarsest kind, consisting for the most part of cornmeal mush, which often finds its way from the wooden tray to his mouth in an oyster shell. 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 1, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:
(countable, uncountable) A mixture of noise produced by the harmonics of continuous-wave stations.
(countable, uncountable) 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:
(countable, uncountable) A magmatic body containing a significant proportion of crystals suspended in the liquid phase or melt.
(Multicultural-London-English, countable, uncountable) A gun.
Do you want me to back out the mush, bruv?
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Translations (16)
cy stwnsh (semiliquid substance) · cmn 糊状物 (semiliquid substance) · ru каша (semiliquid substance) · pl kleik (semiliquid substance) · nl pap (semiliquid substance) · it pastone (semiliquid substance) · de Matsch (semiliquid substance) · hu kása (semiliquid substance) · cs kaše (semiliquid substance) · hu pép (semiliquid substance) · hu pempő (semiliquid substance) · it poltiglia (semiliquid substance) · bg каша (semiliquid substance) · de Brei (semiliquid substance) · cy iytan (semiliquid substance) · pl papka (semiliquid substance)
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”).
Meanings
To squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else.
He mushed the ingredients together.
One must compartmentalize one's life and not let different facets/experiences mush over into one another. 1981 August 15, Loraine Obler, “Sleeping Beauty Recast”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 5, page 17:
hu pépesít (to squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else) · ru заме́шивать (to squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else) · it spezzettare (to squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else) · it sminuzzare (to squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else) · hu pépessé tesz (to squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else) · bg скашквам (to squish so as to break into smaller pieces or to combine with something else)
From Old High German muos and Goidelic mus (“a pap”) or muss (“a porridge”), or any thick preparation of fruit.
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) A food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk; porridge.
(countable, qualifier:rustic US, uncountable) 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:
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Translations (13)
de Maisbrei (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · fi puuro (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · es gachas de harina de maíz (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · pl kaszka (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · hu kukoricakása (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · el παπάρα (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · de Polenta (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · bg каша (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · hu kukoricamálé (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · nl pap (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · hu polenta (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · hu kukoricapép (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge) · hu puliszka (food comprising cracked or rolled grains cooked in water or milk, porridge)
Believed to be a contraction of mush on, from Michif, in turn a corruption of French marche (“march”) 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”).
Meanings
A directive given (usually to dogs or a horse) to start moving, or to move faster.
"An' of course the dogs can hike along all day with that contraption behind them," affirmed a second of the men. / "Certainly," said Hal, with freezing politeness, taking hold of the gee-pole with one hand and swinging his whip from the other. "Mush!" he shouted. "Mush on there!" / The dogs sprang against the breast-bands, strained hard for a few moments, then relaxed. They were unable to move the sled. 1903 July, Jack London, “The Toil of Trace and Trail”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, pages 130–131:
es vamos (directive given to start moving) · fr hue (directive given to start moving) · fr dia (directive given to start moving) · es andando (directive given to start moving)
Believed to be a contraction of mush on, from Michif, in turn a corruption of French marche (“march”) 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”).
Meanings
A walk, especially across the snow with dogs.
The White House posted a cartoon to X on Wednesday of two Greenlandic mush teams with three huskies each, pointing towards the choice of the white pillars and the South Lawn or a tempestuous scene by the Great Wall of China and Red Square in Russia. 2026 January 14, Ben Makuch, “White House post nods to racist, far-right subculture, extremism expert says”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 15 Jan 2026:
Believed to be a contraction of mush on, from Michif, in turn a corruption of French marche (“march”) 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”).
Meanings
(intransitive) To walk, especially across the snow with dogs.
[skiing] It's as beautiful as you always described it, Sam. / I think we'd make better time on the dog sled. You in the mood to mush? 2019, Bob Smiley, “Cocaine Pills and Pony Meat” (17:50 from the start), in Victor Nelli Jr., director, Atypical, season 3, episode 3, spoken by Julia and Sam (Amy Okuda and Keir Gilchrist), via Netflix:
(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:
From Angloromani mush (“man”), from Romani mursh, from Sanskrit मनुष्य (manuṣya, “human being, man”).
Meanings
(Southern-England, UK, slang) (US, slang, chiefly Nonantum) A form of address, normally to a man.
"Hey, Mush!" Tony Pellegrino called to Michael standing on the other side of the street. 2018, Brenda Spalding, Bottle Alley, Heritage Publishing, →ISBN, chapter 1:
Oy mush, come over here and gimme a hand with the motor.
(Australia, Northern-England, UK, slang) The face.
es jeta (slang: the face) · cs brácho (slang: form of address to a man) · cs čéče (slang: form of address to a man) · es che (slang: form of address to a man) · es tronco (slang: form of address to a man) · cy mwsh (slang: form of address to a man) · es cardo (slang: the face) · es güey (slang: form of address to a man) · es tío (slang: form of address to a man) · nl tronie (slang: the face) · cs kámo (slang: form of address to a man)
mush en · NOUN · etymology 6
Etymology
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).
Meanings
(London, slang) A cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well; a musher.
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fi taksiyrittäjä (cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well)
mush en · VERB · etymology 7
Etymology
Compare French moucheter (“to cut with small cuts”).
Meanings
(transitive) To notch, cut, or indent (cloth, etc.) with a stamp.