cushion

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to protect from impact

   They cushioned the blow of the hard news they gave.

2. 2
   noun

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

   “There the cause of death was soon ascertained ; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument, in shape like an antique stiletto, which […] was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom.[…]”

3. 3
   noun

   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.

   Wisla made a bright start to the second half and Fulham keeper Mark Schwarzer was twice called into action, first saving Gervasio Nunez's deflected 20-yard effort and then smothering Gargula's free-kick. But Fulham soon had the cushion of a third goal after more outstanding build-up play.

4. 4
   noun

   The dancer in the cushion dance who currently holds the cushion, or the dance itself.

   But of these kind of second Courses I am the onely Cook; though yet those ordinary practises of our Feasts, as choosing a King, throwing Dice, drinking Healths, trouling it Round, dancing the Cushion and the like, were not invented by the seven Wise Men but my Self, and that too for the common pleasure of Mankind.

5. 5
   verb

   To furnish with cushions.

   to cushion a sofa

6. 6
   verb

   To seat or place on, or as on a cushion.

   How many doughty monarchs, in later and more polite ages, would have slept in cottages, and have worked in falls, instead of inhabiting palaces, and being cushioned up in thrones, if this rule of government had continued in force ?

7. 7
   verb

   To absorb or deaden the impact of.

   to cushion a blow

8. 8
   noun

   a soft bag filled with air or a mass of padding such as feathers or foam rubber etc.

Etymology

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”).