smashing
/ˈsmæʃɪŋ/ adjective, noun
Also a form of smash
Forms smashings
- adjective Serving to smash (something). “The boxer delivered a smashing blow to his opponent's head.”
- adjective (originally US, now UK and Ireland) Wonderful, very good or impressive. “We had a smashing time at the zoo.”
- noun The breaking or destruction of (something brittle) in a violent manner. “Some Greek dance is traditionally accompanied by the smashing of crockery.”
- noun The destruction or disintegration of something by being smashed.
- noun The hitting of something extremely hard.
- noun The complete and sudden ruin or ruination of something.
- noun (informal, idiomatic) An overwhelming victory or success.
- noun The deformation of something through continuous pressure.
- noun (slang, vulgar) An act of sexual intercourse.
- noun (slang, archaic) A disastrous failure of something.
Synonyms
shattering bang-up bully corking cracking dandy great groovy keen neat nifty not bad peachy slap-up swell
Etymology
From smash + -ing. As a synonym for wonderful, the term first appeared in the United States in the early twentieth century, and possibly derives from the sense of smash used in smash hit and similar terms. Popular folk etymology connects the term to the broadly homophonous Irish is maith sin or Scottish Gaelic 's math sin ("that is good"), but this has been described as "improbable", and does not appear in the etymological dictionaries.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “smashing”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details