▪ I. pash, n.1 Obs. exc. dial.
(pæʃ)
A head.
| 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. i. ii. 128 Thou want'st a rough pash, & the shoots that I haue, To be full like me. 1674–91 Ray N.C. Wds., Pash, ‘a mad pash’, a mad-brain. Chesh. a 1697 Cleland Poems 66 Some turning up their gay Mustachoes, And others robbing [i.e. rubbing] their dull pashes. 1719 Ramsay To Arbuckle 118, I [wig-maker and poet] theek the out, and line the inside Of mony a douce and witty pash. 1836 J. Struthers Dychmont ii. 6 Where's Jock Arneil's lang witty pash? [In E.D.D. as Scotch and Cheshire.] |
▪ II. pash, n.2 Now chiefly dial.
(pæʃ)
[f. pash v.]
1. A smashing or crushing blow or stroke. rare.
| 1611 Cotgr., Gourmade, a cuffe on the mouth, a pash on the nose. |
2. A crashing blow or fall; a crash. Now dial.
| 1677 O. Heywood Diaries, etc. (1883) III. 149 There was suddenly a pash of a chamber-floore. 1781 J. Hutton Tour to Caves (ed. 2) Gloss., Pash, a sudden crash. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pash. ‘I fell wi sike a pash’. |
3. A heavy fall or dash of rain or snow. dial.
| 1790 Marshall Midl. Counties (1796) II. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Pash (of rain), a heavy fall of rain. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pash. ‘We hev hed a sad pash last week’. 1885 Q. Rev. Apr. 350 The soil would have been run together like lime by a ‘pash’ of rain. |
4. transf. ‘The fragments produced by a smash’ (E.D.D.), debris; hence, a collection, a medley, a great quantity or number.
| 1790 Grose Prov. Gloss. Suppl., Pash, a great many. North. 1894 Sat. Rev. 14 Apr. 386 (title of Article) A Pash of Heraldry. |
▪ III. pash, n.3
Aphetic form of calipash.
| 1764 Foote Patron i. i, Not the meanest member of my corporation but can distinguish the pash from the pee. |
▪ IV. pash, n.4 and a. colloq.
(pæʃ)
A. n. Abbreviation of passion; esp. in phr. to have a pash for, to be infatuated with, to have a ‘crush’ on; transf. a person who is the object of an infatuation. B. adj. Abbreviation of passionate a.
| 1914 N.Y. World Mag. 1 Nov. 5/6 There wasn't much ‘pash’ about it. 1920 F. Scott Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise (1921) 52 That isn't as pash as some of them. 1922 C. E. M. Joad Highbrows iii. 102, I have met such a duck of a man. You'll never believe! I've quite a pash for him. 1924 P. Marks Plastic Age 24 Let's go the movies... Gloria Nielsen is there and she's a pash baby. 1930 A. Huxley Brief Candles 217 Miss Figgis, the classical mistress, had been her pash for more than a year. 1930 Wodehouse Very Good, Jeeves! x. 257 The last bloke in the world..who you would think would ever fall a victim to the divine pash. 1934 G. Greene It's a Battlefield 168 When you've got a pash for someone like I have, anybody's better than nothing. 1937 Auden & MacNeice Lett. from Iceland 17 Sometimes containing frank demands for cash, Sometimes sly hints at a platonic pash. 1952 [see crush n. 2 d]. 1955 Auden Shield of Achilles i. 30 As when past Iseult's tower you floated The willow pash-notes of wanted Tristram. 1972 J. McClure Caterpillar Cop xiii. 209 ‘You know her then?’ ‘Oh sure. Had a pash for her big sister once.’ 1975 J. Hitchman Such a Strange Lady iii. 36 In her efforts to get over her ‘pash’ on Dr. Allen she became extremely bossy. |
▪ V. pash, v.
(pæʃ)
Also 4 passche, 4–6 pas(s)he.
[app., like many other vbs. in -ash, of onomatopœic origin: cf. bash, smash. In sense 5 doubtfully related to Sw. dial. paska; see pask.
A much used word (esp. in sense 2) from c 1575 for some 60 years; but now chiefly dial.: see Eng. Dial. Dict.]
1. trans. To hurl or throw (something) violently, so as either to break it against something, or smash something with it; to dash. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 16 Piries and Plomtres weore passchet to þe grounde. 1590 Greene Orl. Fur. (1599) 17 As the sonne of Saturne in his wrath Pasht all the mountaines at Typheus head. 1628 Ford Lover's Mel. i. i, And in that sorrow, As he was pashing it [the lute] against a tree, I suddenly stept in. 1876 Mid Yorksh. Gloss. s.v., To pash a thing is..to hurl or dash it violently, from a short distance. |
2. To break or dash (a thing) in pieces or to atoms; to crush or smash by blows.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xx. 99 Deth cam dryuende after and al to doust passhed [v.rr. paschte, passhte] Kynges & kynȝtes kayseres and popes. c 1540 J. Redford Mor. Play Wit & Sc. (Shaks. Soc.) 8 Pash head, pash brayne, The knaves are slayne. 1628 Gaule Pract. The. (1629) 9 One should ryse from her Loynes..and pash that wily Serpents head. a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xxxiii. 282 It pasheth into pieces the Steel Sword. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Pash, to beat any thing brittle into small fragments. 1875 Browning Aristoph. Apol. 843 Planed and studded club Once more has pashed competitors to dust. |
3. To strike or knock violently, usually so as to bruise or smash. Also absol.
| c 1440 York Myst. xlvi. 38 Þei dusshed hym, þei dasshed hym,..Þei pusshed hym, þei passhed hym. 1570–83 Foxe A. & M. 295/2 In the meane while the Christians..were pelted and pashed with stones by them which stood aboue. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 213 If I goe to him, with my armed fist, Ile pash him ore the face. 1611 Cotgr., Gourmé..cuffed on the mouth, pashed on the nose, or face. 1791 Cowper Odyss. xviii. 119 He his adversary on the neck Pash'd close beneath his ear; he split the bones. 1863 Cowden Clarke Shaks. Char. xiv. 362 Never wouldst thou..have pashed that venerable face with the rude flint-stones. |
b. With obj. of cognate meaning.
| 1602 How man may chuse good wife ii. iii, Per Jovem et Junonem! hoc Shall pash his coxcomb such a knock. |
4. To drive out by a violent blow, to dash out (brains, etc.).
| 1530 Palsgr. 653/2 He passhed out his braynes with a stone. 1587 Holinshed Chron. III. 79/2 They left him [Becket] not till they had cut and pashed out his braines. 1647 H. More Song of Soul Quot. xxiv. 199 So may their scattered Brain Pash'd from their cursèd Sculls the Pavement stain. 1828 Craven Gloss (ed. 2) s.v., I'll pash thy brains out. 1855 Browning Childe Roland xii, 'Tis a brute must walk Pashing their [dock-leaves'] life out. |
5. intr. Said of the dashing action of sudden heavy rain (now dial.); also of that of a wave upon a rock; and of the action of beating or striking water as by the feet of a horse (rare).
[With the last of these cf. ME. pask, to dabble; but this sense does not appear to have come down dialectally, and Browning's use is prob. due to the exigency of rime.]
| 1589 [see pashing below]. 1855 Browning Up at a Villa vii, There's a fountain to spout and splash!..horses with curling fish-tails, that prance and paddle and pash Round the lady atop in her conch. 1892 S. A. Brooke Early Eng. Lit. ii. xvi. 87 The black sea waves pash and push upon it. 1903 in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., It [the rain] fair pash'd doon. The water was pashing out of the broken spout. The rain came pashing against the windows. |
Hence ˈpashed, ˈpashing ppl. adjs.
| 1589 Nashe Anat. Absurd. 24 Y⊇ watrie clowdes with pashing showres vncessantlie, sending down their vnreasonable moysture. 1593 ― Christ's T. (1613) 39. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. v. v. 10 Wauing his beame, Vpon the pashed courses of the Kings. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pashed, dashed. 1847 Bairusla Ann. 12 (E.D.D.) Pashin' rain. |