smash

From a blend of smack +‎ mash. Compare Swedish smask (“a light explosion, crack, report”), dialectal Swedish smaska (“to smack, kiss”), Danish smaske (“to smack with the lips”), Low German smaksen (“to smack with the lips, kiss”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /smæʃ/, [smaʃ]
• (US) IPA^(key): /smæʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃ

smash (plural smashes)

1. The sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.

   I could hear the screech of the brakes, then the horrible smash of cars colliding.

2. (Britain, colloquial) A traffic collision.

   The driver and two passengers were badly injured in the smash.

3. (colloquial, entertainment) Something very successful.

   This new show of mine is sure to be a smash.

   • 2012, Tom Lamont, How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world (in The Daily Telegraph, 15 November 2012)

     Soundcheck for the band, today, takes place at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It is late afternoon and while the arena's 17,000 outdoor seats are still empty the four members of 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.

4. (tennis) A very hard overhead shot hit sharply downward.

   A smash may not be as pretty as a good half volley, but it can still win points.

   • 2011 July 3, Piers Newbury, “Wimbledon 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in final”, in BBC Sport‎:

     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.

5. (colloquial, archaic) A bankruptcy.
   • 1845, Basil Montagu, ‎Edward Erastus Deacon, ‎John Peter De Gex, Reports of Cases in Bankruptcy

     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?

• (sound of a violent impact): crash
• (colloquial: traffic accident): crash
• (colloquial: something very successful): smash hit

smash (third-person singular simple present smashes, present participle smashing, simple past and past participle smashed)

1. To break (something brittle) violently.
   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Chapter X

     Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable.

   • 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:

     Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. […] Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.

   The demolition team smashed the buildings to rubble.

   The flying rock smashed the window to pieces.

2. (intransitive) To be destroyed by being smashed.

   The crockery smashed as it hit the floor.

3. To hit extremely hard.

   He smashed his head against the table.

   Bonds smashed the ball 467 feet, the second longest home run in the history of the park.

4. (figuratively) To ruin completely and suddenly.

   The news smashed any hopes of a reunion.

5. (transitive, figuratively) To defeat overwhelmingly; to gain a comprehensive success.

   The Indians smashed the Yankees 22-0.

   I really smashed that English exam.

6. (US) To deform through continuous pressure.

   I slowly smashed the modeling clay flat with the palm of my hand.

7. (transitive, slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse with.

   Would you smash her?

• (break violently): dash, shatter
• (be destroyed by being smashed): shatter
• (hit extremely hard): pound, thump, wallop
• (ruin completely and suddenly): dash
• (defeat overwhelmingly): slaughter, trounce

• SAHMs, Sahms, shams

Borrowed from English smash.

• IPA^(key): /smaʃ/

smash m (plural smashs)

1. (tennis) smash

• smasher

• “smash” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Borrowed from English smash.

smash m (invariable)

1. smash (tennis shot)

Borrowed from English smash.

smash m (plural smashes)

1. (tennis) smash (overhead shot hit sharply downward)