noun · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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Received-Pronunciation:/ˈmʌʃə/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
General-American:/ˈmʌʃəɹ/
rhymes with -ʌʃə(ɹ)
CMU ARPABET:M AH1 SH ER0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
One who drives a dogsled over ice and snow; specifically, one who participates in a dogsled race.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dog musher
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
One who travels over snow, chiefly by dogsled but also by foot.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
Synonym of mush (“a cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: London, slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: mush
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
A mushroom.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: England, dialectal
Qualifier: chiefly Hampshire
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
a traveler who drives (or travels with) a dog team
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: traveler, traveller
History
Etymology
From mush (“to drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across snow”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Mush is probably derived from French marche or marchons, respectively the second-person singular and first-person plural imperative forms of marcher (“to move; to travel; to walk”), from Proto-Germanic *markōną (“to mark; to notice”), from *marką (“mark; sign; stamp”), possibly related to *markō (“border, boundary; area, region”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *merǵ- (“(noun) border, boundary, edge; (verb) to divide”).
Origin uncertain, possibly from mush (“cab driver who is the owner of their cab, and sometimes a small number of other cabs as well”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns), although the word is attested slightly earlier than mush. Mush is possibly derived from mush (“to drive dogs, usually pulling a sled, across snow”, verb) (see etymology 1), or mush (“(slang, rare) umbrella”, noun) (a clipping of mushroom, from the similar appearance; referring to drivers shielding passengers with umbrellas in rainy weather).
Clipping of musher(oom) or musher(oon), variants of mushroom.
Across languages
Translations
3 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Finnish:
koiravaljakon ohjastaja
— one who drives a dogsled over ice and snow; specifically, one who participates in a dogsled race
Sirenik:
ӄымпылъыгаӽта
(qympylʺygax̌ta)
— one who drives a dogsled over ice and snow; specifically, one who participates in a dogsled race
Finnish:
lumessa kulkija
— one who travels over snow