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Synonyms

smash-and-grab

British  

adjective

  1. informal of or relating to a robbery in which a shop window is broken and the contents removed

"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

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.

Feel free to retain the mental image of his epic smash-and-grab catch over teammate Kiké Hernández.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 27, 2026

Australian police have recovered a trove of stolen Egyptian artefacts and charged a 52-year-old man with a nighttime smash-and-grab at a museum.

From Barron's • Feb. 16, 2026

White was on to him like a shot and touched down for a smash-and-grab that sickened England.

From BBC • Feb. 14, 2026

Unlike thieves who carry weapons into museums or use axes to smash-and-grab, art-world scammers rarely get violent—so their prison sentences often get cut short.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 11, 2026

"Probably it was called a smash-and-grab robbery, down here."

From The Enormous Room by Gold, Horace Leonard

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.