Editing Squeegee (section)

{{Short description|Cleaning tool}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2016}}
[[File:2005 squeegee sponge chalk.jpg|thumb|upright|Squeegee, sponge, and chalk on a desk]]
A '''squeegee''' is a [[tool]] with a flat, smooth [[rubber]] blade, used to remove or control the flow of liquid on a flat surface.  It is used for cleaning and in printing.

The earliest written references to squeegees date from the mid-18th century and concern deck-cleaning tools, some with leather rather than rubber blades. The name "squeegee" may come from the word "squeege", meaning press or squeeze, which was first recorded in 1783.<ref>{{OED|squeege}}</ref> The closely related "squeedging" was reportedly first used in 1782, in the [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden Theatre]],<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BDgUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA318
|title=The Works of Mrs. Cowley: Dramas and Poems (In three volumes)
|volume=1 (dramas)
|last=Cowley
|first=Hannah
|page=318
|date=1813
|location=London
|access-date=31 July 2016
|quote=This Comedy was brought out at Covent Garden Theatre in the year 1782.}}</ref> during the performing of the comedy ''[[Which is the Man?]]'' by [[Hannah Cowley (writer)|Hannah Cowley]].<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://wordwizard.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17812
|title=Squeegee
|last=Greenwald
|first=Ken
|date=13 December 2014
|website=Wordwizard
|access-date=31 July 2016
|quote=[...] the OED [Oxford English Dictionary], which defines ‘squeege’ as a strengthened form of ‘squeeze,’ tells us that ‘squeege’ had been used as a verb some half century earlier than ‘squilgee’ came on the scene and gives the following 1782 nautical example. Also, to go from ‘squeege’ to ‘squeegee’ seems to me like a pretty logical progression: <1782 “Such clattering, and SQUEEDGING [‘squeeging’] down the gangway staircase.”—‘Which is the Man?’ by H. Cowley>}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BDgUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA38
|title=The Works of Mrs. Cowley: Dramas and Poems (In three volumes)
|volume=1 (dramas)
|last=Cowley
|first=Hannah
|page=382
|date=1813
|location=London
|access-date=31 July 2016
|quote=[...] At length, when the Assembly broke up, such Clattering and squeedging down the gangway staircase! whilst the little Footboy bawled up from the Passage [...]}}</ref>