bash
Americanverb (used with object)
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bashes,
present (3rd person singular)
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bashed,
past participle, past
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bashing
present participle
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to strike with a crushing or smashing blow.
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Chiefly British, Canadian. to hurl harsh verbal abuse at.
noun
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bashes
plural
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a crushing blow.
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Informal. a thoroughly enjoyable, lively party.
idioms
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on the bash, working as a prostitute.
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have a bash (at), to attempt; make an attempt.
verb
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(tr) to strike violently or crushingly
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(tr; often foll by in, down, etc) to smash, break, etc, with a crashing blow
to bash a door down
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to crash (into); collide (with)
to bash into a lamppost
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to dent or be dented
this tin is bashed
this cover won't bash easily
noun
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a heavy blow, as from a fist
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a dent; indentation
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a party
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informal to make an attempt
Usage
What does bash mean? Bash means "to strike" something with great force. It's been adopted as slang for hurling insults or verbal abuse at someone. A bash is also an older slang term for "a wild party."
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bashsimple
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bashessimple
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have bashedperfect
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has bashedperfect
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am bashingprogressive
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are bashingprogressive
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is bashingprogressive
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have been bashingperfect progressive
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has been bashingperfect progressive
Past
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bashedsimple
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had bashedperfect
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was bashingprogressive
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were bashingprogressive
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had been bashingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bash
First recorded in 1635–45; perhaps of expressive origin
Explanation
To bash is to hit something hard. You might stand up suddenly on a sailboat and bash your head on the mast. Marching band drummers bash their drums with mallets, and terrible drivers bash their bumpers into trees. You can also figuratively bash another person by saying terribly critical things about her. When bash is a noun, it means either "a hard hit or blow," or "a loud, festive party:" "Welcome to my bash! Don't bash your head on the piñata."
Vocabulary lists containing bash
Party Parlance for Mardi Gras
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Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Kojey Radical's third album was inspired by two separate incidents: A fashion week afterparty where he felt like an outsider, and a birthday bash for a close friend that highlighted a rift in their friendship.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Reports of the Qualley-Antonoff split also come less than a week after Antonoff attended Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s lavish, but secretive, wedding bash in New York City sans Qualley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
The Wall Street Journal and parent Dow Jones weren’t yet in existence when the country turned 100 and had its centennial bash, in 1876.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Preparations for the 250th bash started in 2016 with the intention of making it on par with those earlier celebrations.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
Marcus had been bragging about his New Year’s Eve bash on SnowFlake all week.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
The writer bashes imaginary feminists who supposedly tell women that caring about appearance is “some kind of intellectual failure.”
From Salon ● May 8, 2026
Perkins’s home is dotted with pieces from his roughly $20 million art collection, toys like a 50-piece kit to outfit laser-tag players and dancing robots that bust moves at bashes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
But that pales in comparison to the money being spent by some media and other companies that produce their own bashes.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 24, 2026
The result Saturday was a mid-winter party that felt different than any of their previous bashes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2026
Just imagine trying to herd an animal that bolts, blindly bashes itself against walls, can leap up to nearly 30 feet, and can run at a speed of 50 miles per hour!
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
A railway bridge named as the most bashed in Britain has been struck by a lorry for the second time in two days.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
That bashed every dollar down to less than 45 cents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Not bad for something he quickly bashed out in bulletin format without much forethought, in response to a post a former colleague had written.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 8, 2026
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a driving force in the bipartisan push to release the files, bashed the DOJ in a social media post on Monday.
From Salon ● Dec. 22, 2025
In the end, as I said, the vehicle crisis got resolved, and early the next morning, in the pitch dark, the five of us got inside a bashed but perfectly decent Rover car.
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
But a viral social-media post this weekend took Grantham bashing a step further by looking at the investing legend’s own investments.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 2026
Advocates gave a “know your rights” workshop and Amalfitano led a piñata bashing, what the store owner called “a communal form of catharsis,” encouraging students to let out pent-up emotions in a safe way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
The Australian actor joked that his upbringing "on farms where we were bashing about in old cars" helped prepare him for the car chasing stunts.
From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2026
"We have heard a lot of European bashing in the last few days," Lagarde said at the closing session of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in the Swiss Alps.
From Barron's ● Jan. 23, 2026
They used rocks to smash them and spent over an hour bashing rocks and nibbling at the small chunks of nutmeat, which tasted almost sweet.
From "The River" by Gary Paulsen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
