Term for noise shoes make when filled with water?

The 'brogue' shoe originated in Ireland, where it was often "constructed using untanned hide with perforations, allowing water to drain when crossing wet terrain such as a bog" according to Wikipeda.

However, most shoes don't have these holes for draining the water out - so in wet environments, your footwear may fill with water. Is there a particular name for the sound they make when you walk?

Squelch is close, but is more related to walking through a bog and the noise you make as you step on the bog, not because of the water in your shoes.


Squelch is exactly the word you're looking for, so don't rule it out! As the link (dictionary.reference.com) gives in definition 4:

to tread heavily in water, mud, wet shoes, etc., with such a [splashing] sound

Personally, I think the word "splashing" is incorrect. From "splash" I infer a water-on-water sound, whereas a "squelch" is an air-through-water sound.


With regards to the other meaning of squelch, there is unlikely to be any confusion. The "to crush something" meaning is transitive, the "watery noise" meaning is intransitive; hence in any one sentence only one meaning can be interpreted. Additionally the context of "mud" and "shoes" makes the "watery noise" meaning clear.

Both meanings are sufficiently common that very few people would hear "after falling the river my shoes squelched for the rest of the hike" and wonder as to why your shoes were crushing something.


Slosh -- verb: to splash or move through water, mud, or slush; noun: the lap or splash of liquid (Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, 2010, senses 1 and 6, respectively).


The word squish may apply:

To emit the gurgling or sucking sound of soft mud being walked on. (v Intr.)

Or

A squishing sound. (n)

I might suggest a search of "squish sound" for sound files to determine if these evoke the OP's conception of the sound.


What about the term splosh, in its noun form oxford defines it as:

A soft splashing sound

you could use it in a sentence such as:

'With each step you could hear the faint splosh of his waterlogged shoes as he walked home in the rain.'


Squeaking and squishing.

The squeaking comes from the wet leather pieces rubbing against each other, and the squishing from water being squeezed from one part of the shoe to the other by the action of walking.

If you get mud in said shoes, the squishing turns to squooshing. LOL!