smash

Uncertain, probably of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Swedish smask (“to smack with the lips”), dialectal Swedish smaska (“to smack, kiss”), Danish smaske (“to smack with the lips”), Low German smaksen (“to smack with the lips, kiss”).

• IPA^(key): /smæʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃ

smash (countable and uncountable, plural smashes)

1. The sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.

   Synonym: crash

   I could hear the screech of the brakes, then the horrible smash of cars colliding.

   The display cabinet hit the floor with a smash.

2. (UK, Ireland, colloquial) A traffic collision.

   Synonym: crash

   The driver and two passengers were badly injured in the smash.

3. (colloquial) Something very successful or popular (as music, food, fashion, etc).

   Synonyms: hit, smash hit

   This new show is sure to be a smash.

   • 2007 June 26, Jackie Collins, Drop Dead Beautiful, St. Martin's Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 440:

     The dress is a smash.

   • 2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph‎:

     Mumford & Sons – prospering British folk band, in the middle of a long tour of Australia, the US and the UK, their newly released album Babel a smash on all fronts – wander to centre stage.

   • 2019 May 1, Ginaluca Russo, “Taylor Swift Stuns In a Periwinkle Ruffle Mini Dress on the Billboard Music Awards Red Carpet”, in Teen Vogue‎:

     All together, this look is a smash in our books.

4. (tennis) A very hard overhead shot hit sharply downward.

   A smash may not be as pretty as a good half volley, but it can still win points.

   • 2011 July 3, Piers Newbury, “Wimbledon 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in final”, in BBC Sport‎:

     A Nadal forehand into the net gave Djokovic the set and the Spaniard appeared rattled, firing a smash over the baseline in a rare moment of promise at 30-30 at the start of the third.

5. (colloquial, archaic) A bankruptcy.
   • 1845, Basil Montagu, Edward Erastus Deacon, John Peter De Gex, Reports of Cases in Bankruptcy:

     Supposing a man has for the space of a month carried on trade in a showy shop in Cheapside, and then comes a smash, — is he not to be held a trader within the bankrupt law, because no one can swear that he has traded for four months?

6. (colloquial, archaic) A disaster; a bad situation.
   • 1838, Boz , Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, , →OCLC:

     “There’s nowhere else to go to now, for the people at the Cripples are all in custody, and the bar of the ken—I went up there and see it with my own eyes—is filled with traps.”
     “This is a smash,” observed Toby, biting his lips. “There’s more than one will go with this.”

7. A mashed foodstuff.
   • 2017, Charles Rawlings-Way, Brett Atkinson, Lonely Planet Discover Australia:

     the saltbush dukkah, avocado and feta smash.

8. A kind of julep cocktail containing chunks of fresh fruit that can be eaten after finishing the drink.
9. (aviation, informal) Airspeed; dynamic pressure.
   • 2008, Tom Clancy, Chuck Horner, Every Man A Tiger‎:

     Then, for Horner's red team, it became just a matter of gaining sufficient smash (airspeed) to convert on them and film them with gun cameras.

10. (uncountable, archaic) Destruction.
    • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

      I went back with him to the Admiral Benbow, and you cannot imagine a house in such a state of smash; the very clock had been thrown down by these fellows in their furious hunt after my mother and myself;

    • 1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:

      The door panels were in a normal state of smash, but the frame of the door resisted all besiegers, and behind it the owner carried on his varied pursuits

• → Czech: smeč
• → Serbo-Croatian: smeč
• → Turkish: smaç

smash (third-person singular simple present smashes, present participle smashing, simple past and past participle smashed)

1. (transitive) To break (something brittle) violently.

   The demolition team smashed the buildings to rubble.

   The flying rock smashed the window to pieces.

   • 1895 May 29, H G Wells, chapter X, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:

     Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable.

   • 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:

     Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.

   • 2021 December 29, Dominique Louis, “Causal analysis: crashworthiness at Sandilands”, in RAIL, number 947, page 33:

     We also found that the only emergency egress from the tram was by smashing the front or rear windscreens, and that emergency lighting had failed when the tram overturned.

2. (intransitive) To be destroyed by being smashed.

   The crockery smashed as it hit the floor.

3. (transitive) To hit extremely hard.

   He smashed his head against the table.

   Bonds smashed the ball 467 feet, the second longest home run in the history of the park.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To ruin completely and suddenly.

   The news smashed any hopes of a reunion.

5. (transitive, figuratively) To defeat overwhelmingly; to gain a comprehensive success over.

   The Indians smashed the Yankees 22-0.

   I really smashed that English exam.

6. (transitive, US) To deform through continuous pressure.

   I slowly smashed the modeling clay flat with the palm of my hand.

   • 2016, Doreen Virtue, Jenny Ross, Veggie Mama, page 154:

     Using a fork, smash the avocado with all the remaining ingredients.

7. (transitive, slang, vulgar) To have sex with.

   Would you smash her?

   • 2020 November 7, Dave Chappelle on Saturday Night Live:

     Farmersonly.com. A website that begs the question, what kind of bitch only smashes with farmers?

   • 2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 3, column 4:

     In a leaked video, Keys also asked pundit Jamie Redknapp of an ex girlfriend: “Did you smash it?”

8. (intransitive, slang, archaic) Synonym of go to smash (“to go to ruin; to fail disastrously”).
   • 1910, Fergus Hume, The Peacock of Jewels:

     "What would have become of the gems had the bank smashed?" asked Marie in a timid and rather tearful voice, for it was a terrible thought to think that her dreams might dissolve into thin air.

9. (UK, Ireland, slang, obsolete) To pass counterfeit money.

• (break violently): dash, shatter
• (be destroyed by being smashed): shatter
• (hit extremely hard): pound, thump, wallop; see also Thesaurus:hit
• (ruin completely and suddenly): dash
• (defeat overwhelmingly): slaughter, trounce
• (have sexual intercourse with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

• → Catalan: esmaixar

• HMSAS, SAHMs, Sahms, Shams, shams

Borrowed from English smash.

• IPA^(key): /smaʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

smash m (plural smashs)

1. (tennis) smash

• smasher

• “smash”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from English smash.

smash m (invariable)

1. smash (tennis shot)

Unadapted borrowing from English smash.

smash m (plural smashes)

1. (tennis) smash (overhead shot hit sharply downward)

smash n (plural smash-uri)

1. alternative form of smeș