cushion

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English quysshyn, from later Old French coissin (modern coussin), from Vulgar Latin *coxīnus (“seat pad”), derived from Latin coxa (“hip, thigh”) (with the suffix possibly after Latin pulvīnus (“pillow”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *koḱs- (“joint, limb”). === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada, Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈkʊʃən/ (Standard Southern British) IPA(key): /ˈkɵʃən/ (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA(key): /ˈkʉʃən/ Rhymes: -ʊʃən === Noun === cushion (countable and uncountable, plural cushions) A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support. (Commonwealth) A throw pillow. A thin, flat pad used on hard chairs and sometimes toilet seats. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact. A pad on which gilders cut gold leaf. A mass of steam in the end of the cylinder of a steam engine to receive the impact of the piston. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The lip around a table in cue sports which absorbs some of the impact of the billiard balls and bounces them back. The pillow used in making bone lace. An engraver's pad. (historical) The rubber of an electrical machine. (historical) A pad supporting a woman's hair. (figuratively) a sufficient quantity of an intangible object (like points or minutes) to allow for some of those points, for example, to be lost without hurting one's chances for successfully completing an objective. (finance, countable, uncountable) Money kept in reserve. (historical) The dancer in the cushion dance who currently holds the cushion, or the dance itself. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== pillow squab === Verb === cushion (third-person singular simple present cushions, present participle cushioning, simple past and past participle cushioned) To furnish with cushions. Synonyms: nestle, pad To seat or place on, or as on a cushion. (figurative) To absorb or deaden the impact of. (transitive, figurative) To conceal or cover up, as under a cushion. ==== Derived terms ==== cushion the blow recushion ==== Translations ==== ==== References ==== (conceal or cover up): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary