cushyadj.
/ˈkʊʃi/, U.S. /ˈkʊʃi/ Chiefly colloquial.
1. Of a person: relaxed and pleasant; easy-going.
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1887 R. Kipling Three Musketeers in Civil & Mil. Gaz. 11 Mar. 3/1 The jildier you chels, the better khushi will the sahib be.
1960 J. R. Ackerley We think World of You 129 That's all right. I know 'im. 'E's cushy.
1968 Time & Tide 8 Aug. 24/1 Fielding..obviously goes down well in Tothill Street and the unions recognise that they do not have a cushy man to deal with.
1995 J. Quinn Generations of Moon xxxiv. 258 The new curate was a ‘cushy’ man in confession.
2. Originally Military slang.
a. Of a job, situation, etc.: undemanding, easy; requiring little or no effort; (later) spec. involving little effort, but ample or disproportionate rewards (usually depreciative).
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > easiness > [adjective] > doing effortlessly > involving little effort > of work or occupation
cushy1895
cushiony1908
cosy1915
1895 Penny Illustr. Paper 19 Jan. 37/3 He told me that I had got into a ‘cushy’ (easy) troop.
1916 Daily Mail 1 Nov. He's got a cushy job.
1928 E. Waugh Decline & Fall i. iii I was sent to Ireland on a pretty cushy job connected with postal service.
1938 W. H. Auden & C. Isherwood On Frontier iii. i There're too many healthy young men slacking in cushy staff jobs!
1950 J. Brooke Goose Cathedral i. 20 The unit certainly seemed pretty cushy: there was no early roll-call parade.
1970 A. Sillitoe Start in Life 285 You were always on the lookout for a cushy billet.
1975 D. Clement & I. La Frenais Porridge: Scripts (2002) 2nd Ser. Episode 1. 149/1 You know this is a very cushy number here.
1985 M. Binchy Echoes i. 56 Being a teacher must seem like a nice cushy job to Nellie.
2013 Irish Independent (Nexis) 29 May 38 A well-paid club which facilitates a narrow group of well-connected people to pursue a cushy existence, while the rest of the world works for a living.
b. Esp. of accommodation: comfortable, pleasant.
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1915 D. O. Barnett Let. 20 June in In Happy Memory 44 The billets here are very good..and we have rooms to ourselves... It's all very cushey and nice.
1920 London Mercury Apr. 649 Oh, it's a bonzer war In cushy billets at the Poisson D'Or!
1935 C. Odets Waiting for Lefty i. 14 in Three Plays Go pick up that bull-thrower on the corner and stop at some cushy hotel downtown.
1971 Time 18 Jan. 30/3 Something is not quite right even at the state's cushiest ‘correctional facilities’ (bureaucratese for prisons), some of which could pass for prep schools.
1996 High Country News 10 June 10/2 Costs range from $700 to more than $3,000 for one-to two week trips with far cushier accommodations than field tents.
c. Of a wound: serious enough to necessitate one's withdrawal from active duty, but not life-threatening or likely to have permanent consequences, such as disability. Cf. Blighty n. 2. Now historical.Apparently only with reference to the First World War (1914–18).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > injury > [adjective] > wounded > minor wound
cushy1915
1915 Ld. Moran Diary Sept. in Anat. Courage (1945) x. 114 When you are in the trenches a cushy wound..seems the most desirable thing in the world.
1915 Land & Water 23 Dec. 15/1 Got a cushy one.
1917 W. Muir Observ. Orderly xiv. 222 To get your ‘plates of meat’ frostbitten wasn't such a ‘cushy wound’ as it was cracked up to be.
1929 R. Graves Good-bye to all That xiii. 150 They all talk about getting a ‘cushy’ one to send them back to ‘Blitey’.
2002 T. R. St. George Bloody Wet 139 They grow fatalistic, their best slim hope a cushy wound: no missing parts or ugly scars or permanent disability.
3. Chiefly North American.
a. Soft and spongy to the touch, esp. pleasantly or comfortably so.
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1940 R. Wright Native Son ii. 155 The planks creaked as he led her up. Now and then he felt his shoes sink into a soft, cushy substance.
1968 N.Z. Listener 15 Mar. 6/5 Lying in its sheltered cove..complete with its own rata tree, inaka bushes, and great cushy heaps of golden-green moss.
1994 Today's Parent Toronto! Oct. (12–13 insert) p. iv (advt.) Sure to become your child's best buddy, these cuddly, cushy, lovable pets will coax a smile from children of all ages.
1994 Sub-terrain Fall 20/3 Two beer, a juice, and depositing my ass on cushy naugahyde left me with a feeling verging on euphoria.
2003 Time Out N.Y. 28 Aug. 32/1 Each pair of shoes..has..a 1/ 8″ piece of cushy foam material under the sock liner.
b. spec. Of furniture or furnishings: soft and well-padded; comfortable.
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1967 Life 28 Apr. 28/2 (advt.) Seats are deep, cushy.
1989 Adbusters Q. Winter 68/3 The machine then injects a special chemical into the clouds, causing the pollution to transform into a big cushy mattress which floats safely to the ground.
1992 N.Y. Times 18 Oct. v. 28/3 Allen Scott Books..has cushy chairs and couches and a diverse collection of vintage, rare and used 20th-century books in a warren of smallish rooms.
2013 Washington Post (Nexis) 20 June t12 White denim slipcovered sofas and cushy leather armchairs.
Derivatives
ˈcushiness n. the quality or condition of being cushy.
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1916 R. H. Vernède Let. 4 May (1917) 107 Am here for another week, and then I believe the Batt. is out for some time, so cushiness is ahead.
1930 S. Sassoon Mem. Infantry Officer ix. 268 There were times when I felt perversely indignant at the ‘cushiness’ of my convalescent existence.
2005 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 13 Nov. i. 11/5 They sat inside the tentlike shelter, testing the cushy-ness of its padded bench.
2009 GQ Feb. 164/2 He has nothing but bile for the cushiness of their closed-shop existence and their perceived idleness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1887