• IPA^(key): /bæʃ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃ

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”)^[1]

bash (third-person singular simple present bashes, present participle bashing, simple past and past participle bashed)

1. (informal) To strike heavily; to beat.

   The thugs kept bashing the cowering victim.

   If the engine won't start, bash it with this hammer.

   • 1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 141:

     It was planned that the sick men were to crawl over and simultaneously seize the fire-arms and bash us with them while the women flung themselves upon the trackers.

   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia:

     It isn't the creature's fault that it bashed its head against a tree outside our hole.

2. (informal) To collide; used with into or together.

   Don't bash into me with that shopping trolley.

   • 1998, Katharine Payne, Silent Thunder, page 74:

     The bulls backed apart and ran together, tusks clashing — Ed held his trunk down while Conrad curled his high over his head, out of the way of Ed's tusks as the faces bashed together.

3. (transitive, informal) To criticize harshly.

   He bashed my ideas.

   • 1994, Richard Nixon, “America Beyond Peace”, in Beyond Peace‎^[1], New York: Random House, →ISBN, page 236:

     The entertainment industry, the artistic community, and much of the educational establishment, which so profoundly influence American culture, relentlessly assault religion, promote promiscuity, encourage illegitimacy, and bash America.

   • 2020 February 16, Sonia Sodha, “Politicians should stop bashing the rich… most of us just don’t agree”, in The Observer‎^[2]:

     This is consistent with new research about to be published by Tax Justice UK that found that, when making the case for a more progressive tax system, bashing the wealthy resonated far less well with voters than specific arguments about closing loopholes and increasing particular taxes.

• → German: bashen

bash (plural bashes)

1. (informal) A forceful blow or impact.

   He got a bash on the head.

2. (informal) A large party; a gala event.

   They had a big bash to celebrate their tenth anniversary.

   • 2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 74:

     The party level ramps up at Thornaby, where a gaggle of women on a 50th birthday bash join us.

3. (UK, informal) An attempt at doing something.

   Synonym: (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland) lash

   give something a bash

   I'm not sure I'll be any good at this, but let me have a bash.

   This was my first bash at macramé, so I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out.

From Middle English baschen, baissen. See abash.

bash (third-person singular simple present bashes, present participle bashing, simple past and past participle bashed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To abash (make ashamed)
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37:

     His countenance was bold and bashed not.

• “bash”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• AHBs, Bahs, HABs, HBAs, Habs, bahs, habs, shab

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish باش (baş).

bash m (plural bashe, definite bashi, definite plural bashet)

1. bow, prow (front of the ship)

   bashi i lundrës ― the bow of the ship

2. the best part, the cream

   Synonyms: ballë, ajkë, lule

3. corner of a room, usually where the hearth is

   Synonym: qoshe

4. (Gheg, archaic) extract, essence

bash (feminine bashe) (Gheg, archaic)

1. pure, truthful, main
   • Rossi (1875), page 61a:

     bash-mjeshtër ― great professor

   • Leotti (1916), page 56:

     ai âsht bash-terzíu në kasabāt

     he is the main, best tailor of the city

2. highly devoted, pious, conservative (of faith)
   • Rossi (1875), page 61a:

     bash-katolik ― pious Catholic

     bash-kshten ― pious Christian

     bash-turk ― pious Turk

• FGJSSH (1980), page 109b: “bash,~i”
• Bufli & Rocchi (2021), page 66: “bash”
• Topalli (2017), page 181a: “bash¹”
• Omari (2012), page 97
• Çabej SE, vol. 2, page 177ab: “bash¹”
• Leotti (1916), page 56: “bash”
• Weigand (1914), page 5b: “bash”
• Bashkimi (1908), page 35b: “bash, é”
• Jungg (1895), page 5a: “basc, e”
• Meyer (1891), page 28: “baš”
• Rossi (1875), page 61a: “bàsc, i”

Borrowed from Serbo-Croatian bȁš / ба̏ш.

bash (Gheg, colloquial)

1. exactly! precisely! just... !

   Synonyms: tamam, pikërisht, mu

   Bash ashtu! ― Just like that!

• FGJSSH (1980), page 109b: “bash”
• Topalli (2017), page 181a: “bash²”
• Ylli SLA, vol. 1, page 22b: “bash”
• Çabej SE, vol. 2, page 177b: “bash²”
• Weigand (1914), page 5b: “bash”
• Jungg (1895), page 5a: “basc”
• Meyer (1891), page 28: “baš”
• Rossi (1875), page 61a: “bàsc-asctù”
• Miklosich AF, vol. 1, page 15: “baš”

• bashu

Inherited from Latin bāsiō (“to kiss”). This is one of relatively few words for which the Daco-Romanian equivalent (in this case săruta) is not derived from the same Latin word.

bash (participle bãshatã)

1. to kiss
2. to embrace

• (kiss): hiritsescu, gugustedz
• (embrace): ambrãtsitedz, ambrats

• bãshari / bãshare
• bãshat
• dizbash
• spribash

bash

1. blood

bash

1. alternative form of baush

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 25