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”).
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 23, David Gunston, “Railways on the Screen”, in Railway Magazine, page 90:
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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:
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[…]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:
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Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports, 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.
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:
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:
“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:
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A mashed foodstuff.
[…] the saltbush dukkah, avocado and feta smash.2017, Charles Rawlings-Way, Brett Atkinson, Lonely Planet Discover Australia:
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A kind of julep cocktail containing chunks of fresh fruit that can be eaten after finishing the drink.
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:
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:
smash
verb
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”).
The demolition team smashed the buildings to rubble.
The flying rock smashed the window to pieces.
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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.1895 May 29, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter X, in The Time Machine: An Invention, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC:
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.2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:
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:
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To be destroyed by being smashed.
The crockery smashed as it hit the floor.
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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.
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
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In a leaked video, Keys also asked pundit Jamie Redknapp of an ex girlfriend: “Did you smash it?”2023 June 29, Metro, London, page 3, column 4:
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Archaic, 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: