Word.ws English Dictionary

smash

/smæʃ/

smash noun: the sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.

Noun

smash (countable and uncountable, 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.
    • The display cabinet hit the floor with a smash.
    Synonyms:
    crash
  2. (Ireland, UK, colloquial) A traffic collision.
    • The driver and two passengers were badly injured in the smash.
    • 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).1958 February, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 90
    Synonyms:
    crash
  3. (colloquial) Something very successful or popular (as music, food, fashion, etc).
    • This new show is sure to be a smash.
    • The dress is a smash.2007 June 26, Jackie Collins, Drop Dead Beautiful, St. Martin's Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 440
    Synonyms:
    hit, smash hit
  4. 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.
    • 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.2011 July 3, Piers Newbury, “Wimbledon 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in final”, in BBC Sport
  5. (archaic, colloquial) A 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?1845, Basil Montagu, Edward Erastus Deacon, John Peter De Gex, Reports of Cases in Bankruptcy
  6. (archaic, colloquial) A disaster; a bad situation.
    • “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.”1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC
  7. A mashed foodstuff.
    • […] the saltbush dukkah, avocado and feta smash.2017, Charles Rawlings-Way, Brett Atkinson, Lonely Planet Discover Australia
  8. A kind of julep cocktail containing chunks of fresh fruit that can be eaten after finishing the drink.
  9. (informal) Airspeed; dynamic pressure.
    • 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.2008, Tom Clancy, Chuck Horner, Every Man A Tiger
  10. (archaic, uncountable) Destruction.
    • 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; […]1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC
    • 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 […]1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To break (something brittle) violently.
    • The demolition team smashed the buildings to rubble.
    • The flying rock smashed the window to pieces.
    Synonyms:
    dash, shatter
  2. (intransitive) To be destroyed by being smashed.
    • The crockery smashed as it hit the floor.
    Synonyms:
    shatter
  3. (transitive) 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.
    Synonyms:
    pound
  4. (figuratively, transitive) To ruin completely and suddenly.
    • The news smashed any hopes of a reunion.
    Synonyms:
    dash
  5. (figuratively, transitive) To defeat overwhelmingly; to gain a comprehensive success over.
    • The Indians smashed the Yankees 22-0.
    • I really smashed that English exam.
    Synonyms:
    slaughter, trounce
  6. (US, transitive) To deform through continuous pressure.
    • I slowly smashed the modeling clay flat with the palm of my hand.
    • Using a fork, smash the avocado with all the remaining ingredients.2016, Doreen Virtue, Jenny Ross, Veggie Mama, page 154
  7. (slang, transitive, vulgar) To have sex with.
    • Would you smash her?
    • Farmersonly.com. A website that begs the question, what kind of bitch only smashes with farmers?2020 November 7, Dave Chappelle on Saturday Night Live
    Synonyms:
    coitize
  8. (archaic, intransitive, slang) Synonym of go to smash (“to go to ruin; to fail disastrously”).
    • "What would have become of the gems had the bank smashed?" asked Marie in a timid and rather tearful voice, for it was a terrible thought to think that her dreams might dissolve into thin air.1910, Fergus Hume, The Peacock of Jewels
    Synonyms:
    go to smash
  9. (Ireland, UK, obsolete, slang) To pass counterfeit money.

smash meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

smash in Tamil

நொறுக்கு

smash in Urdu

برباد کرنا, چور چور کرنا

smash in Bengali

চূর্ণবিচূর্ণ করা, জোরে আঘাত করা

smash in Telugu

(transitive) to break violently
నాశనం చేయు nāśanaṁ cēyu
to hit extremely hard
బాదు bādu
More languagesFewer languages
smash in Malayalam
നശിപ്പിക്കുക, തകർക്കുക, ഉടയ്ക്കുക, ഭഞ്‌ജിക്കുക
smash in Kannada
ಡಿಕ್ಕಿ, ದೊಡ್ಡ ಏಟು, ಬಾರೀ ಮೆಚ್ಚುಗೆ, ಢಿಕ್ಕಿ
smash in Gujarati
સ્મેશ, સ્મેશ કરો, સ્મૅશ
smash in Nepali
स्म्याश, स्म्यास, स्म्याश गर्नुहोस्
smash in Arabic
كَسَّرَ kassara, تَكَسَّرَ takassara
smash in Indonesian
smes

Examples of smash in a sentence

  • […]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.2012 November 15, Tom Lamont, “How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world”, in The Daily Telegraph:
  • All together, this look is a smash in our books.2019 May 1, Ginaluca Russo, “Taylor Swift Stuns In a Periwinkle Ruffle Mini Dress on the Billboard Music Awards Red Carpet”, in Teen Vogue:
  • I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly.1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter X, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:
  • We also found that the only emergency egress from the tram was by smashing the front or rear windscreens, and that emergency lighting had failed when the tram overturned.2021 December 29, Dominique Louis, “Causal analysis: crashworthiness at Sandilands”, in RAIL, number 947, page 33:

All 40 example sentences with smash

Synonyms of smash

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of smash

Forms of smash

Noun
pluralsmashes
Verb
third-person singular presentsmashes
present participlesmashing
past participlesmashed
pastsmashed

Past tense of smash: smashed

Plural of smash: smashes

Origin of smash

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”).

Words formed from smash

Phrases with smash

2 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with smash

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about smash

What does smash mean?
Smash means the sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.
What is smash in Tamil?
Smash in Tamil is நொறுக்கு. See Smash meaning in Tamil.
How do you use smash in a sentence?
[…]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.
What part of speech is smash?
Smash can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce smash?
Smash is pronounced /smæʃ/.
What is the plural of smash?
The plural of smash is smashes.

Words near smash in the dictionary

  1. smartypants
  2. smartypantses
  3. SMAs
  4. SMase
  5. SMases
  6. smash
  7. smash and dash
  8. smash and grab
  9. smash and grabs
  10. smash burger
  11. smash burgers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smash (page history and authors); smash (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smash (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smash (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smash (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smash (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); smash (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); smash (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-smash.ogg.

Cite this entry: “smash.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smash. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.