Squeeze some juice out of the orange/ Squeeze the orange for some juice?

Question

I am really confused regarding the usage of this word, squeeze.

I know it means to press something with fingers or extract liquid from something, but what bugs me is its usage:

Should it be followed with the object that you press, like an orange, or the liquid that you get after exerting pressure on the said object? Or perhaps both are OK?

For example, are both examples below correct?

Squeeze the orange for some juice.
Squeeze some juice out of the orange.

I already looked it up on the Collins dictionary (https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/squeeze). What I learned is that it can either be followed by the orange or the juice that is derived from squeezing the orange.

Still, when I wrote the following sentence in my essay,

Try slicing a peel off the orange, holding it above the balloon, and slightly squeezing some juice out of it.

my editor corrected it as:

...and giving it a squeeze until a few drips of juice squirt out.

Now I'm just really confused about the usage of this word.

Also, is there another way of expressing the same meaning, say, using a different verb?

Answer 1

Squeeze the orange for some juice. Squeeze some juice out of the orange.

Both are correct sentences, although I personally would use Squeeze the orange to get some juice. However For does also mean TO GET. ​

for preposition (TO GET) in order to get or achieve:

I hate waiting for public transport.

I had to run for the bus.

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1. Try slicing the peel off the orange, holding it above the balloon, and slightly squeezing some juice out of it.

as opposed to

2. Try slicing the peel off the orange, holding it above the balloon, and giving it a squeeze until a few drips of juice squirt out.

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1. Is a perfectly acceptable sentence if you use the peel not a peel.

2. Is technically incorrect you cannot squirt a drip. However you can squirt or drip a drop of liquid!

A drip is formed by a slowly accumulating amount of liquid collecting on the lower side of a surface, a drop. When the mass of liquid reaches a critical point, gravity takes over and the drop falls in a drip.

drip verb If a liquid drips, it falls in drops, or you make it fall in drops: or to produce drops of liquid:

Water dripped down the wall.

She dripped paint on the carpet. ​

A Squirt is formed by forcing a liquid to flow out through a narrow opening in a fast stream.

squirt verb (to force a liquid) to flow out through a narrow opening in a fast stream:

He squirted some tomato sauce on his burger.

There was a leak in one of the pipes and water was squirting out all over the kitchen floor. ​

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Note The peel; not a peel Peel is an uncountable noun.

peel noun [ U ] UK; the skin of fruit and vegetables, especially after it has been removed:

All references Cambridge English Dictionary

Answer 2

Trying to understand what your editor was thinking, my guess is that he or she thought that 'slightly squeezing some juice ' was an awkward construction. The word 'slightly ' has to do with the amount of pressure being used to squeeze. You can slightly squeeze an orange, but when you squeeze juice you're not actually applying pressure to the juice, so 'slightly ' is not the right adverb. The meaning is still understood. I think the editor was just trying to fix the problem of the awkward phrasing.