smack dab

Or smack-dab

[smak-dab]

adverb

Informal.

1. directly; squarely.

   smack dab in the middle.

Word History and Origins

Origin of smack dab¹

First recorded in 1890–95; smack ² ( def. ) (in the sense “directly, straight”) + dab ¹ ( def. ) (in the sense “a quick, light blow,” used adverbially)

Example Sentences

“We don’t want to live in fear, so we make ourselves useful working for organizations that move the scale away from fear and put us smack dab in the middle of love.”

From Los Angeles Times

Films like “All of Us Strangers,” “Happiest Season” and “Of an Age” have attempted to depict the stomach-twisting anxiety of being queer and finding yourself smack dab in the place you tried so hard to get out of, and to varying success.

From Salon

Everyone’s favorite analog diarist is smack dab in the middle of a universe ruled by tech.

From Salon

We’re smack dab in the middle of 2010 again.

From Salon

Smack dab in the middle of the Indian Ocean, the collection of more than five dozen tiny islands are mostly uninhabited, due in no small part to the United States and United Kingdom expelling the Indigenous Chagossians in an ethnic cleansing from 1967 to 1973.

From Salon