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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cushion.

A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈkʊʃən/Australia, Canada, General-American, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɵʃən/British, Southern, Standard/ˈkʉʃən/Northern-Ireland, Scotland
  1. A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support. A throw pillow.

    Commonwealth · countable · uncountable
  3. A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support. A thin, flat pad used on hard chairs and sometimes toilet seats.

    countable · uncountable
  4. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact. A pad on which gilders cut gold leaf.

    countable · uncountable
  5. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact. A mass of steam in the end of the cylinder of a steam engine to receive the impact of the piston.

    countable · uncountable
  6. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact. The lip around a table in cue sports which absorbs some of the impact of the billiard balls and bounces them back.

    countable · uncountable
  7. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact. The pillow used in making bone lace.

    countable · uncountable
  8. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact. An engraver's pad.

    countable · uncountable
  9. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact. The rubber of an electrical machine.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  10. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact. A pad supporting a woman's hair.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  11. 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.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
  12. 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. Money kept in reserve.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
  13. The dancer in the cushion dance who currently holds the cushion, or the dance itself.

    countable · historical · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/ˈkʊʃən/Australia, Canada, General-American, New-Zealand, Received-Pronunciation/ˈkɵʃən/British, Southern, Standard/ˈkʉʃən/Northern-Ireland, Scotland
  1. To furnish with cushions.

    to cushion a sofa
  2. To seat or place on, or as on a cushion.

  3. To absorb or deaden the impact of.

    figuratively
    to cushion a blow
  4. To conceal or cover up, as under a cushion.

    figuratively · transitive
Where this word comes from

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”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.