hash

[hash]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hash ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a dish of diced or chopped meat and often vegetables, as of leftover corned beef or veal and potatoes, sautéed in a frying pan or of meat, potatoes, and carrots cooked together in gravy.

a mess, jumble, or muddle: a hash of unorganized facts and figures.

a reworking of old and familiar material: This essay is a hash of several earlier and better works.

Computers. garbage(def 7).

Radio and Television Slang. electrical noise on a radio or snow in a television picture caused by interfering outside sources that generate sparking.

verb (used with object)

to chop into small pieces; make into hash; mince.

to muddle or mess up: We thought we knew our parts, but when the play began we hashed the whole thing.

to discuss or review (something) thoroughly (often followed by out): They hashed out every aspect of the issue.

Verb Phrases

hash over, to bring up again for consideration; discuss, especially in review: At the class reunion they hashed over their college days.

Idioms

make a hash of, to spoil or botch: The new writer made a hash of his first assignment.

settle someone's hash, Informal. to get rid of; subdue: Her blunt reply really settled my hash.

Origin of hash

1645–55; < French hacher to cut up, derivative of hache ax, hatchet

Related formsun·hashed, adjective

Synonyms for hash

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hash ON THESAURUS.COM

10. bungle, butcher, muddle, mess up, flub. 9. review, recall, reminisce, recollect, remember.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for make a hash of

abuse, blow, blunder, botch, bungle, confound, err, flub, fumble, goof, harm, misapply, misconduct, mistreat, misuse, muff, overlook, pervert, prostitute, maladminister

British Dictionary definitions for make a hash of

hash

noun

a dish of diced cooked meat, vegetables, etc, reheated in a sauce

something mixed up

a reuse or rework of old material

make a hash of informal

to mix or mess up
to defeat or destroy

settle someone's hash or fix someone's hash informal to subdue or silence someone

verb (tr)

to chop into small pieces

to mix or mess up

Word Origin for hash

C17: from Old French hacher to chop up, from hache hatchet

hash

noun

slang short for hashish

hash

hash mark

noun

the character (#) used to precede a number

this sign used in printing or writing to indicate that a space should be inserted

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for make a hash of

hash

n.2

short for hashish, 1959.

hash

n.1

"a stew," 1660s, from hash (v.). Meaning "a mix, a mess" is from 1735.

hash

1650s, "to hack, chop into small pieces," from French hacher "chop up," from Old French hache "ax" (see hatchet). Hash browns is short for hash browned potatoes (1917), with the -ed omitted, as in mash potatoes. The hash marks on a football field were so called 1960s, from similarity to hash marks, armed forces slang for "service stripes on the sleeve of a military uniform" (1909), which supposedly were called that because they mark the number of years one has had free food (hash (n.1)) from the Army; but perhaps there is a connection with the noun form of hatch (v.2).

make a hash of in Medicine

hash

[hăsh]

n.

Hashish.

Idioms and Phrases with make a hash of

make a hash of

Also, make a mess of. Ruin or spoil something, as in They've made a hash of their financial affairs, or She thought he'd make a mess of the garden. The first term, first recorded in 1833, uses hash in the sense of “a jumble of mangled fragments”; the variant, using mess in the sense of “a muddle” or “a state of confusion,” was first recorded in 1862.

hash

In addition to the idiom beginning with hash

hash over

also see:

make a hash of
settle someone's hash
sling hash