Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A kitchen utensil for mashing vegetables or fruit.
- n. Slang A man who attempts to force his attentions on a woman.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An apparatus for preparing the mash for the distillation of potato spirits. Ure, Dict.
- n. One who or that which mashes or crushes; a crusher.
- n. One whose dress or manners are such as to impress strongly the fancy or elicit the admiration of susceptible young women; a fop; a “dude”; a “lady-killer.”
Wiktionary
- n. One who, or that which, mashes.
- n. brewing A machine for making mash.
- n. a man who makes often unwelcome advances to women
- n. a fashionable man, a dandy, a fop
- n. rare A man who molests women, as in a subway.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who, or that which, mashes; also (Brewing), a machine for making mash.
- n. Slang A charmer of women.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a kitchen utensil used for mashing (e.g. potatoes)
- n. a man who is aggressive in making amorous advances to women
Etymologies
- Either by analogy with masher ("one who presses, softens"), or more likely from Romani masha ("a fascinator, an enticer"), mashdva ("fascination, enticement"). Originally used in theater, and recorded in US in 1870s. Either originally borrowed as masher, from masha, or from mash + -er. Leland writes of the etymology: (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The platoon was making a flank job on this hillside, and when I looked up, I saw a Nip with a potato masher, which is a hand grenade, and he was heaving it.”
“If the creature presumes to hang about the stage door, a word of complaint to the manager will be sufficient; the "masher" will at once "take notice" of some other door and probably of some other actress.”
“A refined girl would never put herself in a position requiring such drastic measures; but it is, I think, to these reckless young wretches, and a few silly, sentimental simpletons who permit themselves to be drawn into a mawkish correspondence with perfect strangers, that we really owe the continued existence of the stage-door "masher," who wishes to be mistaken for a member of the”
“The "masher" is an impertinence, a nuisance; but never, dear madam, never a danger.”
“Of course, now and again, at long, long intervals, a man really falls in love with a woman whom he has seen only upon the stage; but no "masher" proceedings are taken in such cases.”
“No more vulgar term exists than "masher," and it is a distinct comfort to find Webster ascribing the origin of the word to England's reckless fun-maker, -- _Punch_.”
“But so far as the stage "masher" is concerned, dear and anxious mamma, auntie, or sister, don't worry about the safety of your actress to be.”
“And Ephraim was the "masher" of the country neighborhood.”
“The last clipping recounted how an irate husband pounded a "masher" so hard that he died.”
“The sight of this empty-headed dandified "masher" embittered me, and I reminded him rather brutally of ten shilling he had borrowed from me.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘masher’.
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Dirty Deeds, Acts & Villainous Arcana
Villains, evildoers, and the wonderful words to describe them.
putsch, internecine, galère, stygian, infernal, opprobrium, anathema, bruit, scurrility, mulct, misanthropic, invective and 102 more...
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Kitchen Utensils
As I got rolling on this, discovered this list, by Trivet.
butter knife, bread knife, steak knife, spife, pan, pot, salt shaker, cauldron, colander, sieve, zester, spatula and 34 more...
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kitchen utensils
glass, knife, fork, teapot, oven, spoon, plate, frying pan, saucepan, masher, spatula, strainer and 13 more...
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Unsavoury Types
insults, epithets, etc.
drotchel, drossel, drazel, flutch, lollard, scobberlotcher, ragabash, faineant, cad, buffoon, martinet, tosspot and 116 more...
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utensil strength
sieve, colander, whisk, chinoise, spatula, fork, spork, runcible spoon, tong, mandoline, crockery, ladle and 28 more...
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Name Suggestions for Even Bigger SUVs...
Watch out, Hummer!
A companion list to Name Suggestions for Ultra-Compact Cars. :-) Sounds best when you preface each word with "the."behemoth, monstrosity, leviathan, goliath, colossus, brute, giant, mammoth, brobdingnagian, jumbo, bulk, elephant and 69 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for masher.
bilby "People remember his old father driving into town in his own carriage; indeed, they remembered Tom Devereux himslef as a bit of a masher, smoking a cigar and wearing a new flower in his buttonhole every day."
- Frank O'Connor, 'The Miser'. Sep 6, 2008