different between smash vs slam

English

Etymology

From a blend of smack +? mash. Compare Swedish smask (“a light explosion, crack, report”), dialectal Swedish smaska (“to smack, kiss”), Danish smaske (“to smack with the lips”), Low German smaksen (“to smack with the lips, kiss”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /smæ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Noun

smash (plural smashes)

1. The sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.

2. (Britain, colloquial) A traffic collision.

3. (colloquial) Something very successful or popular (as music, food, fashion, etc); a hit.
   • 2019, Ginaluca Russo, "Taylor Swift Stuns In a Periwinkle Ruffle Mini Dress on the Billboard Music Awards Red Carpet", Teen Vogue, 1 May 2019:

     All together, this look is a smash in our books.
4. (tennis) A very hard overhead shot hit sharply downward.
5. (colloquial, archaic) A bankruptcy.
6. A kind of julep cocktail containing chunks of fresh fruit that can be eaten after finishing the drink.

Synonyms

• (sound of a violent impact): crash
• (colloquial: traffic accident): crash
• (colloquial: something very successful): smash hit

Descendants

• ? Czech: sme?
• ? Serbo-Croatian: sme?

Translations

Verb

smash (third-person singular simple present smashes, present participle smashing, simple past and past participle smashed)

1. To break (something brittle) violently.
   • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine, Chapter X

     Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing. Yet oddly enough I found here a far more unlikely substance, and that was camphor. I found it in a sealed jar, that, by chance, I supposed had been really hermetically sealed. I fancied at first the stuff was paraffin wax, and smashed the jar accordingly. But the odor of camphor was unmistakable.

2. (intransitive) To be destroyed by being smashed.

3. To hit extremely hard.

4. (figuratively) To ruin completely and suddenly.

5. (transitive, figuratively) To defeat overwhelmingly; to gain a comprehensive success over.

   I really smashed that English exam.

6. (US) To deform through continuous pressure.

7. (transitive, slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse with.
   • 2020 November 7, Dave Chappelle on Saturday Night Live:

     Farmersonly.com. A website that begs the question, what kind of bitch only smashes with farmers?

Synonyms

• (break violently): dash, shatter
• (be destroyed by being smashed): shatter
• (hit extremely hard): pound, thump, wallop; see also Thesaurus:hit
• (ruin completely and suddenly): dash
• (defeat overwhelmingly): slaughter, trounce
• (have sexual intercourse with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Descendants

• ? Catalan: esmaixar

Translations

Related terms

Anagrams

• HMSAS, SAHMs, Sahms, Shams, shams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English smash.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sma?/

Noun

smash m (plural smashs)

1. (tennis) smash

Related terms

• smasher

Further reading

• “smash” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English smash.

Noun

smash m (invariable)

1. smash (tennis shot)

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English smash.

Noun

smash m (plural smashes)

1. (tennis) smash (overhead shot hit sharply downward)

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /slæm/
• Rhymes: -æm

Etymology 1

From Middle English *slammen (not recorded), apparently from a Scandinavian source ultimately from Old Norse slæma, slœma (“to slam, swing a weapon, strike an object out of reach”), related to Old Norse slamra, slambra (“to slam”). Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål slamre (“to slam”), Swedish slamra (“to pound, beat, make a clatter, rattle”), Norwegian Nynorsk slamra (“to sway, dangle”).

Verb

slam (third-person singular simple present slams, present participle slamming, simple past and past participle slammed)

1. (transitive, ergative) To shut with sudden force so as to produce a shock and noise.

2. (transitive, ergative) To put in or on a particular place with force and loud noise. (Often followed by a preposition such as down, against or into.)

3. (transitive) To strike forcefully with some implement.
4. (intransitive) To strike against suddenly and heavily.
5. (transitive, colloquial) To speak badly of; to criticize forcefully.

6. (basketball) To dunk forcefully, to slam dunk.
7. (intransitive, bridge) To make a slam bid.
8. (transitive, card games) To defeat (opponents at cards) by winning all the tricks of a deal or a hand.
   • 1742, Edmond Hoyle, A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist

     D having seven Spades in his Hand wins them, and consequently slams A and B

9. (transitive, slang) To change providers (e.g. of domain registration or telephone carrier) for a customer without clear (if any) consent.
10. (transitive) To drink off, to drink quickly.
11. To compete in a poetry slam.
12. (transitive, drugs, slang) To inject intravenously; shoot up.

Synonyms

• (drink quickly): See also Thesaurus:drink
• (shoot up): bang

Derived terms

• slam the door on
• slam on the brakes

Translations

Noun

slam (countable and uncountable, plural slams)

1. (countable) A sudden impact or blow.
   • 1981, Shel Silverstein, “How Many, How Much”, A Light in the Attic, Harper & Row:

     How many slams in an old screen door? / Depends how loud you shut it.

2. (countable) The shock and noise produced by violently closing a door or other object.

   • The slam and the scowl were lost upon Sam.

3. (countable, basketball) A slam dunk.
4. (countable, colloquial, US) An insult.

5. (uncountable) The yellow iron silicate produced in alum works as a waste product.
6. A poetry slam.
7. A slambook.
   • 2017, Mark Duffett, Fan Identities and Practices in Context: Dedicated to Music (page 194)

     Regular friendship books had a variety of variations, such as slams, crams, and decos.
8. (Britain, dialect) The refuse of alum works.
9. (music) A subgenre of death metal with elements of hardcore punk focusing on midtempo rhythms, breakdowns and palm-muted riffs

Translations

Etymology 2

Origin unknown.

Noun

slam (countable and uncountable, plural slams)

1. (uncountable, obsolete) A type of card game, also called ruff and honours.
2. A card game, played all at once without separate turns, in which players attempt to get rid of their cards as quickly as possible according to certain rules.

   Synonym: spit

3. (countable, card games) Losing or winning all the tricks in a game.
4. (countable, bridge) A bid of six (small slam) or seven (grand slam) in a suit or no trump.
5. (countable, sports) Winning all (or all but one) of the available, major or specified events in a given year or sports season.

Derived terms

• grand slam
• little slam

Verb

slam (third-person singular simple present slams, present participle slamming, simple past and past participle slammed)

1. (transitive, card games) To defeat by winning all the tricks of a deal or a hand.

Etymology 3

Compare Dutch slomp, German Schlampe.

Noun

slam (plural slams)

1. (obsolete) A shambling fellow.

Anagrams

• AMLs, AMSL, LAMs, Lams, MASL, SAML, alms, lams, mals, masl, salm

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?slam]

Noun

slam

1. genitive plural of sláma

French

Noun

slam m (plural slams)

1. poetry slam

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [slam]

Noun

slam

1. dative of sl?

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From German Schlamm

Noun

slam n (definite singular slammet, uncountable)

1. mud, ooze, slime, sludge, slurry

References

• “slam” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “slam” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From German Schlamm

Noun

slam n (definite singular slammet, uncountable)

1. mud, ooze, slime, sludge, slurry

References

• “slam” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Volapük

Proper noun

slam

1. Islam

Declension