smash
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /smæʃ/
rhymes: -æʃ
Forms: form: smashes
Etymology: Uncertain, probably of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Swedish smask (“to smack with the lips”), dialectal Swedish smaska (“to smack, kiss”), Danish smaske (“to smack with the lips”), Low German smaksen (“to smack with the lips, kiss”).
Senses: examples: text: I could hear the screech of the brakes, then the horrible smash of cars colliding.
text: The display cabinet hit the floor with a smash.
synonyms: crash
glosses: The sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.
examples: text: The driver and two passengers were badly injured in the smash.
text: The footage of this scene has been re-used in several later films where a good, convincing train smash was required, notably in "Seven Sinners" (1937).
ref: 1958 February 24, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 90:
synonyms: crash
glosses: A traffic collision.
examples: text: This new show is sure to be a smash.
text: The dress is a smash.
ref: 2007 June 26, Jackie Collins, Drop Dead Beautiful, St. Martin's Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 440:
text: […]Mumford & Sons – prospering British folk band, in the middle of a long tour of Australia, the US and the UK, their newly released album Babel a smash on all fronts – wander to centre stage.
ref: 2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph:
text: All together, this look is a smash in our books.
ref: 2019 May 1, Ginaluca Russo, “Taylor Swift Stuns In a Periwinkle Ruffle Mini Dress on the Billboard Music Awards Red Carpet”, in Teen Vogue:
synonyms: hit
smash hit
glosses: Something very successful or popular (as music, food, fashion, etc).
examples: text: A smash may not be as pretty as a good half volley, but it can still win points.
text: A Nadal forehand into the net gave Djokovic the set and the Spaniard appeared rattled, firing a smash over the baseline in a rare moment of promise at 30-30 at the start of the third.
ref: 2011 July 3, Piers Newbury, “Wimbledon 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in final”, in BBC Sport:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
tennis
glosses: A very hard overhead shot hit sharply downward.
examples: text: Supposing a man has for the space of a month carried on trade in a showy shop in Cheapside, and then comes a smash, — is he not to be held a trader within the bankrupt law, because no one can swear that he has traded for four months?
ref: 1845, Basil Montagu, Edward Erastus Deacon, John Peter De Gex, Reports of Cases in Bankruptcy:
glosses: A bankruptcy.
examples: text: “There’s nowhere else to go to now, for the people at the Cripples are all in custody, and the bar of the ken—I went up there and see it with my own eyes—is filled with traps.”
“This is a smash,” observed Toby, biting his lips. “There’s more than one will go with this.”
ref: 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:
glosses: A disaster; a bad situation.
examples: text: […] the saltbush dukkah, avocado and feta smash.
ref: 2017, Charles Rawlings-Way, Brett Atkinson, Lonely Planet Discover Australia:
glosses: A mashed foodstuff.
glosses: A kind of julep cocktail containing chunks of fresh fruit that can be eaten after finishing the drink.
examples: text: Then, for Horner's red team, it became just a matter of gaining sufficient smash (airspeed) to convert on them and film them with gun cameras.
ref: 2008, Tom Clancy, Chuck Horner, Every Man A Tiger:
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Airspeed; dynamic pressure.
examples: text: I went back with him to the Admiral Benbow, and you cannot imagine a house in such a state of smash; the very clock had been thrown down by these fellows in their furious hunt after my mother and myself; […]
ref: 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
text: The door panels were in a normal state of smash, but the frame of the door resisted all besiegers, and behind it the owner carried on his varied pursuits […]
ref: 1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days:
glosses: Destruction.