smash

plural smashes

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

   The display cabinet hit the floor with a smash.

   1 more example

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

   Synonyms: crash

2. IrelandUKcolloquialcountableuncountableA traffic collision.

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

   1 more example

   The footage of this scene has been re-used in several later films where a good, convincing train smash was required, notably in "Seven Sinners" (1937).

   1958 February 28, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 90

   Synonyms: crash

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

   This new show is sure to be a smash.

   3 more examples

   The dress is a smash.

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

   […]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.

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

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

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

   Synonyms: hit, smash hit

4. countableuncountablehobbiesA 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.

   1 more example

   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.

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

5. archaiccolloquialcountableuncountableA 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?

   1845, Basil Montagu, Edward Erastus Deacon, John Peter De Gex, Reports of Cases in Bankruptcy

6. archaiccolloquialcountableuncountableA disaster; a bad situation.

   “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.”

   1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC

7. countableuncountableA mashed foodstuff.

   […] the saltbush dukkah, avocado and feta smash.

   2017, Charles Rawlings-Way, Brett Atkinson, Lonely Planet Discover Australia

8. countableuncountableA kind of julep cocktail containing chunks of fresh fruit that can be eaten after finishing the drink.
9. countableinformaluncountableaeronauticsAirspeed; dynamic pressure.

   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.

   2008, Tom Clancy, Chuck Horner, Every Man A Tiger

10. archaicuncountableDestruction.

    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 […]

    1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days

    1 more example

    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; […]

    1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

present singular third person smashes · participle present smashing · participle past smashed · past smashed

1. transitiveTo break (something brittle) violently.

   The flying rock smashed the window to pieces.

   4 more examples

   The demolition team smashed the buildings to rubble.

   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.

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

   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.

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

   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.

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

   Synonyms: dash, shatter

2. intransitiveTo be destroyed by being smashed.

   The crockery smashed as it hit the floor.

   Synonyms: shatter

3. transitiveTo hit extremely hard.

   He smashed his head against the table.

   1 more example

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

   Synonyms: pound

4. figurativelytransitiveTo ruin completely and suddenly.

   The news smashed any hopes of a reunion.

   Synonyms: dash

5. figurativelytransitiveTo defeat overwhelmingly; to gain a comprehensive success over.

   I really smashed that English exam.

   1 more example

   The Indians smashed the Yankees 22-0.

   Synonyms: slaughter, trounce

6. UStransitiveTo deform through continuous pressure.

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

   1 more example

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

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

7. slangtransitivevulgarTo have sex with.

   Would you smash her?

   2 more examples

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

   2020 November 7, Dave Chappelle on Saturday Night Live

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

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

   Synonyms: coitize

8. archaicintransitiveslangSynonym of go to smash (“to go to ruin; to fail disastrously”).

   "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.

   1910, Fergus Hume, The Peacock of Jewels

   Synonyms: go to smash

9. IrelandUKobsoleteslangTo pass counterfeit money.