dash

Noun

dash (countable and uncountable, plural dashes)

1. Any of the following symbols: ‒ (figure dash), – (en dash), — (em dash), or ― (horizontal bar).
   1. A hyphen or minus sign.
2. (broadly) The longer of the two symbols of Morse code.
3. A short run, flight.
   • When the feds came they did the dash.

   Synonyms:

   rush, sprint

4. A rushing or violent onset.
   • The oar squeaks,
     a dash sound like
     moon-hustle on the river:1987, Archie Randolph Ammons, “Coming Round”, in Robert Pack, Jay Parini, editors, Introspections: American poets on one of their own poems, Hanover and London: University Press of New England for...

   Synonyms:

   spurt, surge, thrust

5. Violent strike; a whack.
   • They say that I’m way too cold, I never get tired of rappin
     My word is bang where I come from
     Watch be one work is magic
     Do it and dash it
     Smile on MAT
     No way this peng one acting
     Who got whacked and who got slapped
     And who got spared by dashes2018 January 24, “Irrelevant Things”, performed by C1 from LTH

   Synonyms:

   blow, knock, thwack

6. A small quantity of a liquid substance etc.; less than 1/8 of a teaspoon.
   • Add a dash of vinegar.

   Synonyms:

   drop, skoosh, soupçon, ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught, bissel, continental

7. (broadly, figuratively) A slight admixture.
   • There is a dash of craziness in his personality.

   Synonyms:

   element, hint, touch

8. (uncountable) Ostentatious vigor.
   • Aren't we full of dash this morning?

   Synonyms:

   energy, vim, vitality

9. (Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia) A bribe or gratuity; a gift.
   • The traditional practice of offering gifts or "dash" to chiefs has often been misinterpreted by scholars to provide a cultural explanation for the pervasive incidence of bribery and corruption in modern Africa.1992, George Billy Nii Ayittey, Africa Betrayed, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 44
   • Writing in 1924 on a similar situation in Ugep, the political officer, Mr. S. T. Harvey noted: "In the old days there was no specified dowry but merely dashes given to the father-in-law, from 8 to 20 rods according to the status of the man[…]The dowry is made small because whatsoever a woman farms...2006, Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo, The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria, 1885–1950 (Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora; 25), University of Rochester Press, →ISBN...

   Synonyms:

   douceur, sweetener, backhander, bribe, bung, payoff, coffee money, cold drink money, inducement, kopi money

10. (dated, euphemistic) A stand-in for a censored word, like "Devil" or "damn". (Compare deuce.)
    • Sir Thomas looks as if to ask what the dash is that to you! but wanting still to go to India again, and knowing how strong the Newcomes are in Leadenhall Street, he thinks it necessary to be civil to the young cub, and swallows his pride once more into his waistband.
      Comment: Some editions leave...1853, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes, Chapter VI, serialized in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, (VIII, no. 43, Dec 1853) p. 118
    • Who the dash is this person whom none of us know? and what the dash does he do here?1884, Lord Robert Gower, My Reminiscences, reprinted in "The Evening Lamp", The Christian Union, (29) 22, (May 29, 1884) p. 524

    Synonyms:

    beep, blankety-blank

11. (Internet, informal) The dashboard of a social media user.
    • -i hope you find at least one thing on your dash that will make you laugh today.2018, anonymous, quoted in Mélanie Bourdaa, "'May We Meet Again': Social Bonds, Activities, and Identities in the #Clexa Fandom", in A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies (ed. Paul Booth), page...
    • i cannot tell you how happy it makes me when i see my dash filled with selfies from other folks who look like me.2018, "notthesameknowledge", quoted in Randall Lake, Recovering Argument, unnumbered page

    Synonyms:

    control panel, instrument panel, timeline, feed, graphical user interface

12. (India, UK) A prime symbol.

Verb

dash (third-person singular simple present dashes, present participle dashing, simple past and past participle dashed)

1. (intransitive) To run quickly or for a short distance.
   • He dashed across the field.
   • As our train to Paris dashed through the labyrynthine flyovers at Porchefontaine, barely a mile from Versailles, the 75 m.p.h. limit was already almost attained.1961 November, H. G. Ellison, P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 670

   Synonyms:

   bolt, rush, sprint

2. (informal, intransitive) To leave or depart.
   • I have to dash now. See you soon.

   Synonyms:

   go, take off, 23 skidoo, beat it, bug off, remove, egress, bugger off, book, bounce

3. (transitive) To destroy by striking (against).
   • He dashed the bottle against the bar and turned about to fight.
   • There were the tawny rocks, like lions couchant, defying the ocean, whose waves incessantly dashed against and scoured them with vast quantities of gravel.1865, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Shipwreck”, in [Sophia Thoreau; William Ellery Channing], editors, Cape Cod, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 14

   Synonyms:

   beat, whack, bang, baste, batter, belabor, blow, boom-boom, buffet, butt

4. (transitive) To throw violently.
   • The man was dashed from the vehicle during the accident.
   • If you dash a stone against a stone in the bottom of the water, it maketh a sound.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...

   Synonyms:

   chuck, feck, fling, sling, bung, cast, chunk, cook, dump, jerk

5. (ambitransitive, figuratively, sometimes) To sprinkle; to splatter.
   • On each hand the gushing waters play, / And down the rough cascade white-dashing fall.a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC
   • The very source and fount of Day
     Is dash’d with wandering isles of night.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 41

   Synonyms:

   dust, powder, sparge, scatter, speckle, strew

6. (dated, transitive) To mix, reduce, or adulterate, by throwing in something of an inferior quality.
   • to dash wine with water

   Synonyms:

   adulter, corrupt, debase, pollute, sophisticate, abase, adulterate, adulterize, alloy, balderdash

7. (transitive) To ruin; to destroy.
   • Her hopes were dashed when she saw the damage.
   • Arsenal's hopes of starting their Champions League campaign with an away win were dashed when substitute Ivan Perisic's superb late volley rescued a point for Borussia Dortmund.2011 September 13, Sam Lyon, “Borussia Dortmund 1 – 1 Arsenal”, in BBC

   Synonyms:

   snuff, wreck, annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring down, bump off, bury

8. (transitive) To dishearten; to sadden.
   • Her thoughts were dashed to melancholy.

   Synonyms:

   deject, depress, aggrieve, attrist, begloom, begrieve, besorrow, grieve, pain, bring down

9. (transitive, usually with down or off) To complete hastily.
   • He dashed down his eggs.
   • She dashed off her homework.
10. (transitive) To draw or write quickly; jot.
    • "Scarborough," Mrs. Flanders wrote on the envelope, and dashed a bold line beneath; it was her native town; the hub of the universe.1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter I, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC
    • Going out the door, he grabbed a windbreaker and dashed a note to his father and left it on the entry table.2002, Robert Andrews, “Twenty”, in A Murder of Promise, 1st edition, New York City: Putnam's, published 2002, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 181
11. (dated, euphemistic, transitive) Damn (in forming oaths).
    • Dash his impudence! Who is that scoundrel?

    Synonyms:

    darn, eff, frig

Interjection

1. (euphemistic) Damn!

   Synonyms:

   4uck, ay, chihuahua, blast, bugger, bummer, byrlady, consarn it, crap, crud

Proper noun (1) capitalized: DASH

DASH

1. (abbreviation, acronym, web development, video) Acronym of Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP.
2. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Dash

Dash

1. A topographic surname.
2. (rare) A male given name transferred from the surname.