Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to shove up, to lift, to give a leg up.

1868		‘The Stirabout Pot’ in My Young Wife and I Songster 38: The pot slipp’d down below his nose. / To raise it up in vain he tried – / The more he hooshed, it tighter got.
1946		D. MacDonagh Happy as Larry Act I: And the missus is hooshed up beside him.
1991		R. Doyle Van (1998) 376: They sat down at their table [...] sank into the seats, hooshed up their trousers.
1996		R. Doyle Woman Who Walked Into Doors 67: I gave it a shove and hooshed my skirt up.

2. to deride.

1891

F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 116: How the gentlemen did ‘hoosh’ at him [...] ‘For shame, Jack’ – they said, ‘we shouldn’t never have thought it of you!’.

3. of animals and people, to herd, to drive.

1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Oct. 15/1: [A]fter repeatedly failing to lead [the camel] over, rushed him from behind. No hope! Hooshed him down and mounted. Too tired to rise. Got off, whipped him up, and, being uncommonly long-legged, mounted standing, and sent him at it. Result, a graceful hooshta on his own account, a snaky twist of his neck, and a shower of frothy slime over rider.
1907		J.M. Synge Playboy of the Western World Act III: And the mountain girls hooshing him on!
1967–70		in DARE.