smashing
Noun pluralsmashings (some meanings)
Pluralsmashings (some meanings)
- 1Wonderful; very good or impressive.
The host put on a smashing dinner for all the guests.
What a smashing performance the orchestra gave tonight.
Similarwonderful, splendid, terrific, superb, marvelous
Oppositeawful, dreadful, terrible, dismal
Note
Praise with a transatlantic history: it first appeared in the United States in the early twentieth century, possibly from the smash of smash hit, and now belongs to British and Irish English. Toby Whithouse gives it to the Doctor in Doctor Who (2010): "you are smashing!" Context separates it from the literal "breaking" adjective. A smashing blow breaks something, while a smashing time breaks nothing at all.
- 2Present participle and gerund of smash.
He was smashing the old dishes one piece at a time.
Smashing the targets at the fair won her a stuffed bear.
Note
The -ing form of the verb itself, the base the adjectives and nouns are built on. With be it makes the progressive (was smashing the crockery). Without be it heads a gerund phrase (smashing the targets). Smash is both transitive and intransitive, so the form can take an object or stand alone: plates smashing on the floor are breaking, not doing the breaking.
- 3The violent breaking or destruction of something brittle.
The smashing of the chandelier sent shards across the ballroom floor.
Neighbors reported the smashing of bottles against the alley wall late at night.
Similarshattering, breaking, breakage
- 4
- 5The act or result of breaking something to pieces with violent force.
When the demolition crew arrived, the smashing of the old walls began at once.
Years of careless handling ended in the smashing of the family heirloom.
Similardestruction, demolition, wrecking, shattering, breaking
Oppositerestoration, repair, construction
- 6The act of crushing something, such as a career or a hope, suddenly and completely.
The scandal led to the smashing of a once-respected political career.
The drought meant the smashing of every hope the farmers had for that season.
Similarruin, ruination, destruction, wrecking, collapse
Oppositerevival, restoration
- 7Serving to break something apart with force.
A smashing impact crumpled the front of the car.
The wrecking ball dealt a smashing blow to the abandoned factory.
Similarcrushing, shattering, devastating, violent, powerful
- 8Crushing that changes something’s shape under steady pressure.
The smashing of the grapes underfoot released a flood of juice into the vat.
Gradual smashing in the vise bent the copper tube nearly flat.
Similarcrushing, pressing, squashing, compression, flattening
- 9
- 10A vulgar slang word for an act of sexual intercourse.
He bragged to his mates about the smashing he'd had the night before.
She had no interest in a casual smashing with someone she'd only just met.
Note
This one is vulgar slang, fit only for company where crude talk is welcome. In writing or polite speech, plainer words are safer. Because it shares its spelling with the British word of praise, context carries the meaning: a smashing night out is a compliment, while the smashing someone bragged about is a boast of a much cruder kind.
Less common meaning
- 11A disastrous failure of something.
The speculation ended in a smashing that wiped out the firm's savings.
After the harvest failed, the estate slid toward an unavoidable smashing.
Note
A word for failure from older slang, now archaic. It survives on the page rather than in speech. When old prose speaks of a firm's smashing, read it as collapse, not triumph. That makes it the reverse of the overwhelming-victory sense, which wears the same form. In current English it is best kept for deliberate period flavor.
Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- 'Smashing' has an archaic slang sense meaning a disastrous failure, consistent with interpreting a firm's smashing as its collapse. en.wiktionary.org
- 'Smashing' also has an overwhelming-victory or success sense, opposite in meaning to the failure sense. en.wiktionary.org
Showing meanings only.
smashing is a form of smash
smash, verb: To break something brittle into pieces using violent force. Full entry
- Spelling
- smash → smashing: add -ing
Practice
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Origin
From smash + -ing. Used to mean 'wonderful', it first appeared in the United States in the early twentieth century and possibly comes from the sense of smash found in 'smash hit'. A popular folk etymology links it to the similar-sounding Irish 'is maith sin' or Scottish Gaelic ''s math sin' ("that is good"), but this has been called improbable and does not appear in etymological dictionaries.