Definition of "hoosh"

From downstairs we heard a hoosh as the boiler started. The pipes clanked a little while Frankie B talked more about his trip.

2013, James Quackenbush, A Speckled Axe, page 88

Christmas Day was spent at this camp, and, as was the case with the other sledging expeditions that were out at the time, a special feast was provided. For breakfast they had hoosh, sardines in tomato sauce and raisins; for lunch Garibaldi biscuits and jelly; and for dinner potted boneless chicken and a small plum pudding.

1909, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, “Christmas on a Glacier”, in The Heart of the Antarctic, volume 2, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, pages 64–65

They are magnificent animals, averaging 80 lbs. in weight, with a wonderful capacity for endurance in intense cold on very little food. Four such dogs with three men have hauled a load of 1,380 lbs. over soft snow ay 10 miles a day for many weeks. Their staple food was 1½ lbs. of Spratt's cod liver oil biscuits per day; this ration, with a hot hoosh every three days, keeping them in splendid health.

1929, Ernest Edward Mills Joyce, The South Polar Trail, page 218