Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A T-shaped implement having a crosspiece edged with rubber or leather that is drawn across a surface to remove water, as in washing windows.
  • noun A similar implement or a rubber roller used in printing and photography.
  • transitive verb To wipe or smooth with a squeegee.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To treat with a squeegee or squilgee.
  • noun Nautical, same as squilgee.
  • noun In photography, a stout strip of soft rubber set longitudinally in a wooden back which serves as a handle, and beyond which the rubber projects.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To smooth, clean, press, or treat with a squeegee; to squilgee.
  • noun Formerly, a small swab for drying a vessel's deck; now, a kind of scraper having a blade or edge of rubber or of leather, -- used for removing superfluous, water or other liquids, as from a vessel's deck after washing, from window panes, photographer's plates, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A tool consisting of a rubber blade at right angles to a handle, used for spreading, pushing or wiping liquid material on, across or off a surface, especially when cleaning glass, eg the windscreen of a vehicle or a shop window, to remove soapy water.
  • noun slang A person who cleans the windscreen of a vehicle stopped in traffic then demands payment from the driver.
  • noun printing A tool used in silk-screen printing for forcing the ink through the stencil and thus printing the desired image.
  • verb transitive To clean with a squeegee.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb wipe with a squeegee
  • noun T-shaped cleaning implement with a rubber edge across the top; drawn across a surface to remove water (as in washing windows)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from obsolete squeege, to press, alteration of squeeze.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly from squeege, an intensified variant of squeeze. Compare the earlier squill-gee, squillgee.

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Examples

  • i also remember swiping a squeegee from a gas station so that every now and then one of us could reach out the window and wipe off the windshield!

    Me Me Me 2007

  • May 3rd, 2006 at 8: 55 pm katy says: hello ryan – just read something i think you might have fun with … it’s an earlier post, but i’d like to see what you’ll do with it … it may even be child’s play for you … but be nice! squeegee is mostly agreeable … haven’t see you around here lately … have fun!

    Think Progress » Washington Post Perpetuates Myth of Scientific Debate About Basic Facts of Global Warming 2006

  • Giuliani's quality-of-life legislation against so-called squeegee men and hot dog vendors sparked large-scale strikes and protests from those who believed the mayor's zero-tolerance policy was getting out of hand.

    Career Highlights Of Rudy Giuliani 2006

  • The rule dates to a time when so-called squeegee men, who roamed the roadways demanding tips in return for washing windshields, were common.

    NYT > Home Page By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM 2011

  • The rule dates to a time when so-called squeegee men, who roamed the roadways demanding tips in return for washing windshields, were common.

    NYT > Home Page By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM 2011

  • In the past three months, four so-called squeegee men have been wiping windshields at 45th Street and 11th Avenue, the New York Post reported Sunday.

    Latest News - UPI.com 2008

  • We stop at a red light and one of the neighborhood's "squeegee" men comes up to the car to wipe the windshield, hoping to cadge some change out of us.

    Day in the Sun Shadows Football Great's Twilight Years 2010

  • Take a piece of glass an inch larger all round than the print, pour upon it dilute gelatin, and then "squeegee" the print and glass together.

    Scientific American, Volume XLIII., No. 25, December 18, 1880 A Weekly Journal of Practical Information, Art, Science, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Manufactures. Various

  • The thought of having to "squeegee" my own ink vs stamping like a gocco sounds intimidating though … that will probably take practice to get it perfect!

    Weddingbee 2009

  • It doesn't squish while my toddler is eating, but if I am feeding her some soup, for instance, I can "squeegee" the last bits of soup out of the bottom corner of the bowl!

    Epinions Recent Content for Home 2008

Comments

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  • Too many es for a word of this size.

    May 27, 2009

  • Says who?

    Signed, ReeeeeseTeeee

    June 3, 2009

  • According to Clifford W. Ashley in "The Yankee Whaler" (1926) a "lipper" is "an oblong piece of blubber with a slotted finger grip, used to squeegee the decks after cutting-in"

    December 15, 2009