To strike suddenly and violently; give a sudden blow to.To cause to strike suddenly and with violence; throw or thrust violently or suddenly: as, to dash one stone against another; to dash water on the face.To break by collision or by strokes; shatter.To scatter or sprinkle something over; bespatter; sprinkle; splash; suffuse.To place, make, mark, sketch, etc., in a hasty manner.To throw something into so as to produce a mixture; mingle; mix; adulterate: as, to dash wine with water; the story is dashed with fables; to dash fire-damp with pure air (said in coal-mining: see dad).To cast down; thrust out or aside; impede; frustrate; abate; lower.To confound; confuse; put to shame; abash: as, he was dashed at the appearance of the judge.To erase at a stroke; strike out; blot out or obliterate: as, to dash out a line or a word.To strike out or form at a blow; produce suddenly.Synonyms Dash, Smash, Shatter, Shiver, Crush, Mash. That which is dashed does not necessarily go to pieces: if it is broken, the fact is commonly expressed. That which is smashed, shattered, or shivered is dashed to pieces suddenly, with violence, at a blow or in a collision. Smashing is the roughest and most violent of the three acts; the word expresses the most complete disruption or ruin: as, the drunken soldier smashed (shattered,' shivered) the mirror with the butt of his musket. The use of smash or mash for crush (as, his head was smashed, I mashed my finger) is colloquial. Shatter and shiver differ in that shatter suggests rather the flying of the parts, and shiver the breaking of the substance; and the pieces are more numerous or smaller with shiver. That which is crushed or mashed is broken down under pressure; that which is mashed becomes a shapeless mass: sugar and rock are crushed into powder, small particles, or bits; apples are crushed or mashed into pulp in making cider; boiled potatoes are mashed, not crushed, in preparing them for the table.To rush with violence; move rapidly and vehemently.To use rapidity in performance, so as to display force seemingly without care, as in painting or writing.n. A violent striking together of two bodies; collision.n. A sudden check; frustration; abashment: as, his hopes met with a dash.n. An impetuous movement; a quick stroke or blow; a sudden onset: as, to make a dash upon the enemy.n. A small infusion or admixture; something mingled with something else, especially to qualify or adulterate it: as, the wine has a dash of water.n. The capacity for unhesitating, prompt action, as against an enemy; vigor in attack: as, the corps was distinguished for dash.n. A flourish; an ostentatious parade.n. In writing and printing, a horizontal stroke or line of varying length, used as a mark of punctuation and for other purposes; specifically, in printing, a type the face of which consists of such a line.n. In printing, also, a line (variously modified in form) used for the separation of distinct portions of matter, as the parallel dash , the double dash , the diamond or swell dash , etc.n. Any short mark or line.n. In music: The short stroke placed over or under a note by which a staccato effect is indicated. See staccato.n. The line or stroke drawn through a figure in thoroughbass which indicates that the tone signified by the figure is to be chromatically raised a semitone.n. In harpsichord-music, a coulé (which see).n. In zoology, a longitudinal mark, generally rounded and clearly defined at one end, and tapering or gradually becoming indistinct at the other, as if produced by a drop of colored liquid dashed obliquely against the surface, or by the rough stroke of a pen. Such marks are very common on the wings of the Lepidoptera.n. A present made by a trader to a chief on the western coast of Africa to secure permission to traffic with the natives.n. Same as dash-board.n. In sporting, a short race decided in one attempt, not in heats: as, a hundred-yard dash.n. A present or gratuity; a cumshaw.
