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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bash.

To strike heavily; to beat.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/bæʃ/
  1. To strike heavily; to beat.

    informal
    The thugs kept bashing the cowering victim.
    If the engine won't start, bash it with this hammer.
  2. To collide; used with into or together.

    informal
    Don't bash into me with that shopping trolley.
  3. To criticize harshly.

    informal · transitive
    He bashed my ideas.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English *basshen, *basken, likely from Old Norse *baska (“to strike”), akin to Swedish basa (“to baste, whip, lash, flog”), Danish baske (“to beat, strike, cudgel”), German patschen (“to slap”)

noun/bæʃ/
  1. A forceful blow or impact.

    informal
    He got a bash on the head.
  2. A large party; a gala event.

    informal
    They had a big bash to celebrate their tenth anniversary.
  3. An attempt at doing something.

    UK · informal
    give something a bash
    I'm not sure I'll be any good at this, but let me have a bash.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English *basshen, *basken, likely from Old Norse *baska (“to strike”), akin to Swedish basa (“to baste, whip, lash, flog”), Danish baske (“to beat, strike, cudgel”), German patschen (“to slap”)

verb/bæʃ/
  1. To abash (make ashamed)

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English baschen, baissen. See abash.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.