smash

[ smash ]
See synonyms for smash on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with object)
  1. to break to pieces with violence and often with a crashing sound, as by striking, letting fall, or dashing against something; shatter: He smashed the vase against the wall.

  2. to defeat, disappoint, or disillusion utterly.

  1. to hit or strike (someone or something) with force.

  2. to overthrow or destroy something considered as harmful: They smashed the drug racket.

  3. to ruin financially: The depression smashed him.

  4. Tennis, Badminton, Table Tennis. to hit (a ball or shuttlecock) overhead or overhand with a hard downward motion, causing the shot to move very swiftly and to strike the ground or table usually at a sharp angle.

verb (used without object)
  1. to break to pieces from a violent blow or collision.

  2. to dash with a shattering or crushing force or with great violence; crash (usually followed by against, into, through, etc.).

  1. to become financially ruined or bankrupt (often followed by up).

  2. to flatten and compress the signatures of a book in a press before binding.

noun
  1. the act or an instance of smashing or shattering.

  2. the sound of such a smash.

  1. a blow, hit, or slap.

  2. a destructive collision, as between automobiles.

  3. a smashed or shattered condition.

  4. a process or state of collapse, ruin, or destruction: the total smash that another war would surely bring.

  5. financial failure or ruin.

  6. Informal. smash hit.

  7. a drink made of brandy, or other liquor, with sugar, water, mint, and ice.

  8. Tennis, Badminton, Table Tennis.

    • an overhead or overhand stroke in which the ball or shuttlecock is hit with a hard, downward motion causing it to move very swiftly and to strike the ground or table usually at a sharp angle.

    • a ball hit with such a stroke.

adjective
  1. of, relating to, or constituting a great success: That composer has written many smash tunes.

Origin of smash

1
1690–1700; perhaps blend of smack2 and mash1

synonym study For smash

1. See break.

Other words for smash

Other words from smash

  • smash·a·ble, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use smash in a sentence

  • It's quite true the land can't run away, but there are always rows and revolutions and smashes going on; you can't trust anybody.

  • It comes with the onset of a "bergy-bit" which smashes the martingale as it plunges into a deep trough.

    The Home of the Blizzard | Douglas Mawson
  • It is making a drawing-room pet of a tiger; every step he takes upsets a vase or smashes a jar.

  • Hardly is the ship in deep water before the lady's servants are stabbed in their sleep and Lee smashes in the door of her cabin.

  • At last Siegfried, impatient to go on, smashes the Spear and ascends the path to where we see the distant glow of the flames.

    Richard Wagner | John F. Runciman

British Dictionary definitions for smash

smash

/ (smæʃ) /


verb
  1. to break into pieces violently and usually noisily

  2. (when intr, foll by against, through, into, etc) to throw or crash (against) vigorously, causing shattering: he smashed the equipment; it smashed against the wall

  1. (tr) to hit forcefully and suddenly

  2. (tr) tennis squash badminton to hit (the ball) fast and powerfully, esp with an overhead stroke

  3. (tr) to defeat or wreck (persons, theories, etc)

  4. (tr) to make bankrupt

  5. (intr) to collide violently; crash

  6. (intr often foll by up) to go bankrupt

  7. smash someone's face in informal to beat someone severely

noun
  1. an act, instance, or sound of smashing or the state of being smashed

  2. a violent collision, esp of vehicles

  1. a total failure or collapse, as of a business

  2. tennis squash badminton a fast and powerful overhead stroke

  3. informal

    • something having popular success

    • (in combination): smash-hit

  4. slang loose change; coins

adverb
  1. with a smash

Origin of smash

1
C18: probably from sm (ack ² + m) ash

Derived forms of smash

  • smashable, adjective

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