squishy

comparative squishier · superlative squishiest · alternative noun squishie

1. literallyYielding easily to pressure; very soft.

   The mud was squishy underfoot after the rainstorm.

   3 more examples

   The toy was soft and squishy, making it fun to squeeze.

   I love how squishy the pillow is—it’s so comfortable to sleep on.

   Bread is either cheap (soft, squishy supermarket loaves) or expensive (artisan bakery loaves).

   2015, Andrea Chesman, The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How

   1. especiallyliterallySoft and wet.

      Finished with head and hair, the women pulled her up the bank to wash her body, the soft squishy mud registering for the first time on the outer consciousness of Isabelle’s mind.

      2009, Jamie Carie, Wind Dancer, B&H Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 144

2. figurativelySubjective or vague.

   1 more example

   How does the media love Twitter? Let us count the ways: as a tech platform practically indispensable to the work of newsgathering; as a metrics system designating clear numerical value to once-squishy concepts of popularity and esteem; as a gossip-fueled lunchroom of the elites more or less available for public participation; as an arena for duking out industry controversies ranging from #MeToo to opinions about opinion pages.

   April 14 2022, Delia Cai, “Severance, the New York Times’s Twitter Guidelines, and the Forever Illusion of Work-Life Balance”, in Vanity Fair

3. colloquialderogatoryfigurativelygovernmentPolitically moderate.
4. figurativelygamesVulnerable to physical damage; having low hit points or defense.

   Yeah, I’m, like, freaking tissue paper here. Come get the mage, everyone. Pick on the poor squishy mage!

   2006, Marianne Mancusi, Stake That!, page 28

   2 more examples

   Telling your healers how well they kept people alive when a battle was difficult is important; or, what a great job your thief did in disarming the traps to get to the raid; clapping your warriors on their backs for maintaining aggro (i.e., keeping the monster targeting them rather than “squishy” mages) or applauding the sorcerers who unloaded incredible amounts of damage.

   2008, Jeon Rezvani, Guild Leadership: Lessons from the Virtual World, page 111

   What this tells us is that, against PCs equipped to confront a drow shadowblade, a single round's Multiattack is unlikely to deliver a one-hit kill – not unless the target is a squishy wizard or sorcerer.

   2022, Keith Ammann, MOAR!: Monsters Know What They're Doing, page 89

   Antonyms: tanky

5. Making a squish sound.

   Those darling, squishy little footsteps...Is that you, Punio?

   2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Boggly Woods

plural squishies · alternative noun squishie

1. colloquialA squeezable stress reliever, especially one made of foam.
2. slangA term of endearment.

   “It’s going to be fine,” Mother said in her soothing motherly voice. “Is it?” I whispered. “Yes squishy Josh, it will,” she motherlily soothed me.

   2021, Josh Carrott, “Qingdao”, in Once upon a Time in Carrotland: My YouTube Autobiography Which I Definitely Wrote All Of, [Portsmouth, Hampshire]: Compass-Publishing UK, →ISBN