mash / mash/ • n. a uniform mass made by crushing a substance into a soft pulp, sometimes with the addition of liquid: pound the garlic to a mash. ∎  bran mixed with hot water given as a warm food to horses or other animals. ∎  Brit., inf. mashed potatoes. ∎  (in brewing) a mixture of powdered malt and hot water, which is stood until the sugars dissolve to form the wort.• v. [tr.] 1. reduce (a food or other substance) to a uniform mass by crushing it: mash the beans to a paste| [as adj.] (mashed) mashed bananas. ∎  crush or smash (something) to a pulp: he almost had his head mashed by a slamming door. ∎ inf. press forcefully on (something): the worst thing you can do is mash the brake pedal.2. (in brewing) mix (powdered malt) with hot water to form wort.3. Brit., inf. infuse or brew (tea). ∎  [intr.] (of tea) draw; brew.

Mash from a novel (1968) by the American writer Richard Hooker, subsequently a film and (1973–84) a highly successful television series; Mash shows an American Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, staffed by Hawkeye Pierce and his colleagues. It is characterized by an irreverent and anti-militaristic spirit, and a realistic sense of the urgency, and capacity for invention and compromise, required in medical staff dealing with battlefield casualties.

mash malt mixed with hot water to form wort OE.; warm food of meal for cattle, etc., pulpy mass XVI. OE. māsċ = MLG. mēsch, māsch, MHG. meisch crushed grapes (G. maisch):- WGmc. *maisk-, of unkn. orig., but perh. rel. to MIX.
Hence vb. infuse (malt) XIV; beat into a pulp XVII.

MASH / mash/ • abbr. mobile army surgical hospital.

MASH (mæʃ) (USA) mobile army surgical hospital