smash and grab
smash and grab noun: a method of robbery where a glass installation of a shop or other establishment is smashed and items are grabbed as quickly as possible without much regard.
Noun
smash and grab (countable and uncountable, plural smash and grabs)
- A method of robbery where a glass installation of a shop or other establishment is smashed and items are grabbed as quickly as possible without much regard.
- a smash and grab raid
- An act of theft, appropriation, or other form of gaining advantage at another's expense that is done quickly and audaciously.
- Aggiss and Cowie are smash and grab artists, eclectically borrowing from a range of different dance and performance styles and making them into their own inimitable blended form.2006, Liz Aggiss, Billy Cowie, Anarchic Dance, →ISBN, page 5
- My biggest regret is that such a broad and eclectic approach, while in important respects appropriate for a foray into only partly charted territory, inevitably means that I treat some fascinating literatures in a 'smash and grab' manner—I do not do justice to their intrinsic complexity or subtlety.2012, Christopher Pollitt, New Perspectives on Public Services, →ISBN, page x
Verb
smash and grab (third-person singular simple present smashes and grabs, present participle smashing and grabbing, simple past and past participle smashed and grabbed)
- To perform a smash and grab.
Forms of smash and grab
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | smash and grabs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | smashes and grabs |
| present participle | smashing and grabbing |
| past participle | smashed and grabbed |
| past | smashed and grabbed |
Questions about smash and grab
- What does smash and grab mean?
- Smash and grab means a method of robbery where a glass installation of a shop or other establishment is smashed and items are grabbed as quickly as possible without much regard.
- What part of speech is smash and grab?
- Smash and grab can be a noun or a verb.
- What is the plural of smash and grab?
- The plural of smash and grab is smash and grabs.
Words near smash and grab in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: smash and grab (page history and authors). 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.
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Cite this entry: “smash and grab.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/smash_and_grab. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.