squeegee

Probably from squeege, an intensified form of squeeze. Compare earlier squill-gee, squillgee.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈskwiːdʒiː/, /skwiːˈdʒiː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈskwiˌdʒi/

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• Rhymes: -iːdʒi

squeegee (plural squeegees)

1. A tool consisting of a rubber or similar blade attached at a right angle to a handle, particularly
   1. (nautical) A long-handled tool used on ships for swabbing the decks and spreading protective coatings. [1844]
      • 1844, Matilda Charlotte Fraser Houstoun, Texas & the Gulf of Mexico, Vol. I, p. 39:

        Holy-stoning the decks... is the worst description of nervous torture of which I ever heard, excepting perhaps, the infliction of the squee gee.

   2. Similar long-handled tools used for drying or leveling surfaces such as paths and roadways. [1884]
   3. A short-handled tool, especially as used on car windshields and home windows. [1918]
2. A roller used to similar effect, particularly
   1. (photography) A tool used to remove excess moisture from a print. [1878]
   2. (historical) A street-cleaning machine consisting of a roller made of squeegee blades pulled by a horse.
   3. (printing) A tool used to force the ink through the stencil in silk-screen printing.
3. (slang) A person who uses a squeegee, especially one who "cleans" the windshield of a car stopped at a traffic light and then demands payment. [1991]

• squeegee band
• squeegee bandit
• squeegee kid
• squeegeelike
• squeegeeman
• squeegee merchant
• squeegee mop
• squeegee thug

squeegee (third-person singular simple present squeegees, present participle squeegeeing, simple past and past participle squeegeed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To use a squeegee. [1883]
   • 1883, J.T. Taylor, Hardwich's Manual of Photographic Chemistry, 9th ed., p. 347:

     It is then ‘squeegeed’ down on the glass and developed.

   • 1885, Charles George Warnford Lock, Workshop Receipts, 4th Ser., p. 411:

     ...a piece of American cloth to protect the print while squeegeeing...

   • 1886 September 4, All Year Round, p. 104:

     The decks were persistently holystoned, scrubbed, ‘squeegéed’, and swabbed.

Sometimes used with prepositions such as out, down, together, &c.

• “squeegee, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1915.
• “squeegee, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1915.