cushion

Meanings

Noun

• A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support; for sitting on, kneeling on, resting one's head on etc.
• Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
• 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.
• The dancer in the cushion dance who currently holds the cushion, or the dance itself.

Verb

• To furnish with cushions.
• To seat or place on, or as on a cushion.
• To absorb or deaden the impact of.
• To conceal or cover up, as under a cushion.

Origin

• From Middle English cusshon, cuschen, quesshon, from later Old French coissin (modern coussin), from Vulgar Latin *coxīnus ("seat pad"), derived from Latin coxa ("hip, thigh") with the suffix possibly after pulvīnus.