The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mash \Mash\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mashed; p. pr. & vb. n. Mashing.] [Akin to G. meischen, maischen, to mash, mix, and prob. to mischen, E. mix. See 2d Mash.] To convert into a mash; to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; to bruise; to crush; as, to mash apples in a mill, or potatoes with a pestle. Specifically (Brewing), to convert, as malt, or malt and meal, into the mash which makes wort.
Mashing tub, a tub for making the mash in breweries and distilleries; -- called also mash tun, and mash vat.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The action of soaking malted barley etc., in order to convert starch into sugars as part of the brewing process. 2 Preparing tea (in a teapot). vb. (present participle of mash English)
Wikipedia
In brewing and distilling, mashing is the process of combining a mix of milled grain (typically malted barley with supplementary grains such as corn, sorghum, rye or wheat), known as the " grain bill", and water, known as "liquor", and heating this mixture. Mashing allows the enzymes in the malt to break down the starch in the grain into sugars, typically maltose to create a malty liquid called wort. There are two main methods— infusion mashing, in which the grains are heated in one vessel; and decoction mashing, in which a proportion of the grains are boiled and then returned to the mash, raising the temperature. Mashing involves pauses at certain temperatures (notably ), and takes place in a "mash tun"—an insulated brewing vessel with a false bottom. The end product of mashing is called a "mash".
Usage examples of "mashing".
Warm one breakfast cupful of butter, beat in an egg and three teacupfuls of warm water and pour it over the bread, stirring it lightly, but not mashing it.
Melrose imagined a platoon of dogs would look safer to the gray cat than the company of the Beastly Boy, who was now looking at Melrose and mashing crisps into his mouth ferociously.
I heard her shoot through the night on that motorcycle probably mashing everything in her path.
Or, instead of mashing the salsify after boiling, some prefer to drain it, and to dip each piece in batter and fry it in hot lard.
The blades inside my head, like some fiendish Cuisinart, altered their pitch, mashing my brains in a different way.