smash: Meaning and Definition of

smash

Pronunciation: (smash), [key]
— v.t.
  1. to break to pieces with violence and often with a crashing sound, as by striking, letting fall, or dashing against something; shatter: He smashed the vase against the wall.
  2. to defeat, disappoint, or disillusion utterly.
  3. to hit or strike (someone or something) with force.
  4. to overthrow or destroy something considered as harmful: They smashed the drug racket.
  5. to ruin financially: The depression smashed him.
  6. to hit (a ball or shuttlecock) overhead or overhand with a hard downward motion, causing the shot to move very swiftly and to strike the ground or table usually at a sharp angle.
—v.i.
  1. to break to pieces from a violent blow or collision.
  2. to dash with a shattering or crushing force or with great violence; crash (usually fol. by against, into, through, etc.).
  3. to become financially ruined or bankrupt (often fol. by up).
  4. to flatten and compress the signatures of a book in a press before binding.
—n.
  1. the act or an instance of smashing or shattering.
  2. the sound of such a smash.
  3. a blow, hit, or slap.
  4. a destructive collision, as between automobiles.
  5. a smashed or shattered condition.
  6. a process or state of collapse, ruin, or destruction: the total smash that another war would surely bring.
  7. financial failure or ruin.
  8. See
  9. a drink made of brandy, or other liquor, with sugar, water, mint, and ice.
    1. an overhead or overhand stroke in which the ball or shuttlecock is hit with a hard, downward motion causing it to move very swiftly and to strike the ground or table usually at a sharp angle.
    2. a ball hit with such a stroke.
—adj.
  1. of, relating to, or constituting a great success: That composer has written many smash tunes.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
See also: