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say it: skweez
squeeze is a verb and noun meaning "to compress with violence, out of natural shape or condition". It is pronounced /ˈskwiz/ — skweez. It carries 17 recorded senses.
to cause to do through pressure or necessity, by physical, moral or intellectual means
“She forced him to take a job in the city”
“He squeezed her for information”
the act of gripping and pressing firmly
“he gave her cheek a playful squeeze”
a state in which there is a short supply of cash to lend to businesses and consumers and interest rates are high
a situation in which increased costs cannot be passed on to the customer
“increased expenses put a squeeze on profits”
an aggressive attempt to compel acquiescence by the concentration or manipulation of power
“she laughed at this sexual power play and walked away”
the act of forcing yourself (or being forced) into or through a restricted space
“getting through that small opening was a tight squeeze”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for squeeze come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.