SMASHING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does smashing mean? 

• SMASHING (noun)
  The noun SMASHING has 1 sense:

1. the act of breaking something into small pieces

  Familiarity information: SMASHING used as a noun is very rare.

• SMASHING (adjective)
  The adjective SMASHING has 1 sense:

1. very good

  Familiarity information: SMASHING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SMASHING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of breaking something into small pieces

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

shattering; smashing

Hypernyms ("smashing" is a kind of...):

break; breakage; breaking (the act of breaking something)

Derivation:

smash (break into pieces, as by striking or knocking over)

• SMASHING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very good

Synonyms:

bang-up; bully; corking; cracking; dandy; great; groovy; keen; neat; nifty; not bad; old; peachy; slap-up; smashing; swell

Context example:

we had a grand old time

Similar:

good (having desirable or positive qualities especially those suitable for a thing specified)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

 Context examples 

There was a great snarling and growling, and over all arose a smashing and crashing of furniture and glass.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I struck the door of the state-room which had formerly been Mugridge’s, splintering and smashing the panels with the impact of my body.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Wilson led viciously with his left, but misjudged his distance, receiving a smashing counter on the mark in reply which sent him reeling and gasping to the ropes.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The inner shell is essentially an expanding shock wave, so it may be smashing into the dust grains and obliterating them, or producing an extra heating effect that evaporates the dust.

(The Strange Structures of the Saturn Nebula, ESO)

Strangling, suffocating, sometimes one uppermost and sometimes the other, dragging over the jagged bottom, smashing against rocks and snags, they veered in to the bank.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

The ants use this motion to smack other arthropods, likely stunning them, smashing them against a tunnel wall or pushing them away.

(Dracula Ant Found to Be Fastest Creature on Earth, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

We think two big asteroids crashed into each other, creating a huge cloud of grains the size of very fine sand, which are now smashing themselves into smithereens and slowly leaking away from the star, said lead author and graduate student Huan Meng of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

(Spitzer Telescope Witnesses Asteroid Smashup, NASA)

The scientists at the National Science Foundation’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves dubbed GW170817 from a pair of smashing stars tied to the gamma-ray burst, encouraging astronomers to look for the aftermath of the explosion.

(NASA Missions Catch First Light from a Gravitational-Wave Event, NASA)

At that moment the newcomer's fist landed a smashing blow full in his face.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

This time, though we were continually half-buried, there was no trough in which to be swept, and we drifted squarely down upon the upturned boat, badly smashing it as it was heaved inboard.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)