smashes

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of smash.

   The toddler smashes his blocks together and laughs.

   A wrecking ball smashes through the old factory wall.

   Note

   Every use of the verb passes through this form, with or without an object. Most uses take one: a wrecking ball smashes a wall, a team smashes its rivals, a scandal smashes a career. It also stands alone when the thing itself breaks, as when a vase smashes on the tile. In US use it can mean flattening by steady pressure rather than by a single blow.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of smash.

   The band racked up three chart smashes in a single year.

   Her overhead smashes were the strongest part of her game.

   Note

   A plural that gathers very different things under one spelling: a run of hits, a series of crashes, a string of overhead shots. Context does the sorting. Chart smashes are successes, highway smashes are collisions, and the collision use is colloquial in Britain and Ireland. Bankruptcy and disaster can be pluralized too, but both meanings are archaic, so reading smashes as financial ruin will sound old-fashioned.

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