squeegee

A tool for scraping consisting of a blade of rubber or some other material attached at a right angle to a handle.

Noun

  1. A tool for scraping consisting of a blade of rubber or some other material attached at a right angle to a handle.
    • This machine, […] consists of a timber cylinder revolving on an axle, […] The cylinder is armed externally with diagonally-fixed scrapers, squeegees, or brushes. - 1866 November 1, “Phillip’s Patent Rotary Cylinder for...

    1. A long-handled tool with a blade used for cleaning and/or drying surfaces, or for levelling paths, roadways, etc.

      • [F]our men were employed in playing the jets, two in moving the hose from place to place, and four with brooms in sweeping the surfaces of the asphalte and keeping the channels free from straw and larger refuse; they...
      • This roadway is paved with granite blocks laid in the usual sand cement cushion layer, about 1 inch thick, with the joints filled with hot asphalt mixed with heated sand. By means of squeegees, a thin coating, sprinkled...

    2. A short-handled tool with a blade for drying car windshields, windows, etc.

      • For roughly the same cost as two bottles of bathroom cleaner, it is now possible to buy a small squeegee and a microfibre cloth. If you can, buy a squeegee that also has a sucker attachment to enable it to be stuck...

    3. (nautical) A long-handled tool with a blade used on ships for swabbing decks and spreading protective coatings.

      • As for holy-stoning the decks [of the yacht], I set my face against that from the first; it is the worst description of nervous torture of which I ever heard, excepting perhaps, the infliction of the squee gee, which,...
      • But now the old ship had a new flavor all her own. Her decks were slippery with [whale] oil; […] "Here, yew two!" Eph shouted as they stood shivering in the sudden chill. "Git them squeegees and scrape this ile to'ards...

      Synonyms: squilgee

  2. A tool consisting of a roller attached to a handle, used for applying pressure, removing liquid, etc.
    • Experiments during the previous year in street washing by squeegee and flushing machines proved so successful that this method has been permanently adopted and the work will be extended as funds are available. The...

    1. (historical) A street-cleaning machine consisting of a roller with blades pulled by a horse.

    2. (photography) A tool used to press film into a mount, remove excess moisture from a print, etc.; a squeezer.

      • The transfer of the image from paper on to the glass is very easy. The paper is immersed in water, and placed in contact with a glass plate. The superfluous moisture being removed by a squeegee, the paper may then be...

    3. (printing) A tool with a roller or blade used to force ink through a stencil in silk-screen printing.

  3. A person who uses a squeegee (noun sense 1.2); specifically, one who makes an unsolicited attempt to clean the windshield of a car stopped at a traffic light and then requests payment; a squeegee bandit.

    Synonyms: squeegee kid squeegee thug

Origin

The noun is probably derived from squeege (“(informal, dated) to squeeze”, verb) (an intensified form of squeeze (verb)) + -ee (suffix attached to verbs to form nouns meaning persons or things that are the subjects of the verbs). Compare earlier squilgee, squillgee (“tool in the form of a mop or swab, or a blade with a long handle, used for cleaning and/or drying a vessel’s deck”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Forms

squeegees

Derived

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

Verb

  1. Sometimes followed by down, out, together, etc.: to press or spread (a substance) using a squeegee (noun sense); also, to use a squeegee on (something, such as a surface).
    • Transparencies on glass, for use in the Stereoscope, the magic lantern, or for window decoration, may very easily be made by the Carbon process. […] The Carbon tissue, previously cut to the dimensions of the glass, is...
    • [T]he full quantity of gelatine is added, viz. 20 gr. per ounce, stirring well up from the bottom, and pouring into a dish to set. When cold, squeegee the emulsion (after being scraped up from the bottom of the dish...
    • By degrees the ship began to assume the appearance which one expects a British man-of-war to wear. […] The decks were persistently holystoned, scrubbed, ‘squeegéed’, and swabbed, till every speck was removed from them,...

    Synonyms: squilgee

  2. To use a squeegee.
    • Having regulated the temperature, the following articles will be required:– […] a rubber squeegee, and a piece of American cloth to protect the print while squeegeeing; […] - 1885, C[harles] G[eorge] Warnford Lock,...

Forms

squeegees squeegeeing squeegeed