dashed

1. 1
   verb

   Past participle of dash.

   Their hopes were dashed when the deal collapsed at the last minute.

   She had dashed off a quick note and left in a hurry.

   Note

   The participle of a regular verb, so it is spelled exactly like the simple past. Its constructions depend on the meaning. The running and leaving senses are intransitive and appear only in the perfect (she had dashed out). The striking and throwing senses can also be passive, which is why hopes and plans get dashed: smashed, as if flung against something hard.

2. 2
   adjective

   Drawn as a broken line of short dashes separated by small gaps.

   Like the broken line painted down the middle of a road.

   The architect marked the proposed extension with a dashed outline on the plan.

   Fold along the dashed line and cut along the solid one.

   Similarbroken

   Oppositesolid, continuous, unbroken

3. 3
   adjectivedatedeuphemisticBritish

   A mild, dated British way of saying "damned," used to express annoyance or to add emphasis.

   Like "blasted" or "confounded": a softened stand-in for a stronger curse.

   That dashed dog has dug up the flower beds again.

   I'll be dashed if I gan another step for less 'an oaf.

   1824, “Kiddywinkle History, No. II”, in Blackwood's Magazine

   Similarblasted, darned, confounded, wretched

   Note

   A minced oath: a softer, near-sounding stand-in for damned. Besides the attributive use (a dashed shame), it has a refusal formula, I'll be dashed if…, which appears in Blackwood's Magazine in 1824 and is still going in P. G. Wodehouse's Uncle Fred in the Springtime (1939). Today it sounds dated and British. Use it for period color or gentle comedy, not for real anger.

   I'll be dashed if I apologize to him after what he said.

   Well, I'll be dashed if that isn't the vicar's bicycle.

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