dash

From Middle English daschen, dassen, from Danish daske (“to slap, strike”), related to Swedish daska (“to smack, slap, spank”), Old English dwǣscan (“to quell, put out, destroy, extinguish”). See also adwesch, dush.

• IPA^(key): /dæʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃ

dash (plural dashes)

1. (typography) Any of the following symbols: ‒ (figure dash), – (en dash), — (em dash), or ― (horizontal bar).
   1. (colloquial) A hyphen or minus sign.
2. (by extension) The longer of the two symbols of Morse code.
3. A short run, flight.

   When the feds came they did the dash.

4. A rushing or violent onset.
5. Violent strike; a whack.
   • 2018 January 24, “Irrelevant Things”, performed by C1 from LTH:

     They say that I’m way too cold, I never get tired of rappin
     My word is bang where I come from
     Watch be one work is magic
     Do it and dash it
     Smile on MAT
     No way this peng one acting
     Who got whacked and who got slapped
     And who got spared by dashes

6. A small quantity of a liquid substance etc.; less than 1/8 of a teaspoon.

   Add a dash of vinegar.

7. (figuratively, by extension) A slight admixture.

   There is a dash of craziness in his personality.

8. Ostentatious vigor.

   Aren't we full of dash this morning?

9. A dashboard.
   • 1955, Rex Stout, "The Next Witness", in Three Witnesses, October 1994 Bantam edition, →ISBN, page 31:

     The dash clock said 2:38 when […] I turned off a dirt road […] .

10. (Nigeria and Liberia) A bribe or gratuity; a gift
    • 1992, George B. N. Ayittey, Africa betrayed (page 44)

      The traditional practice of offering gifts or "dash" to chiefs has often been misinterpreted by scholars to provide a cultural explanation for the pervasive incidence of bribery and corruption in modern Africa.

    • 2006, Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo, The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950 (page 99)

      Writing in 1924 on a similar situation in Ugep, the political officer, Mr. S. T. Harvey noted: "In the old days there was no specified dowry but merely dashes given to the father-in-law […]

    • 2008, Lizzie Williams, Nigeria: The Bradt Travel Guide (page 84)

      The only other times you'll be asked for a dash is from beggars.

11. (dated, euphemistic) A stand-in for a censored word, like "Devil" or "damn". (Compare deuce.)
    • 1853, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes, Chapter VI, serialized in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, (VIII, no. 43, Dec 1853) p. 118

      Sir Thomas looks as if to ask what the dash is that to you! but wanting still to go to India again, and knowing how strong the Newcomes are in Leadenhall Street, he thinks it necessary to be civil to the young cub, and swallows his pride once more into his waistband.

      Comment: Some editions leave this passage out. Of those that include it, some change the 'you!' to 'you?'.

    • 1884, Lord Robert Gower, My Reminiscences, reprinted in "The Evening Lamp", The Christian Union, (29) 22, (May 29, 1884) p. 524

      Who the dash is this person whom none of us know? and what the dash does he do here?

• punctuation mark

• See also Thesaurus:dash

• dashing
• (typography): em dash, en dash
• (dashboard): dashcam, dash cam

Punctuation

dash (third-person singular simple present dashes, present participle dashing, simple past and past participle dashed)

1. (intransitive) To run quickly or for a short distance.

   He dashed across the field.

2. (intransitive, informal) To leave or depart.

   I have to dash now. See you soon.

3. (transitive) To destroy by striking (against).

   He dashed the bottle against the bar and turned about to fight.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     "`Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his brains out before your very eyes.'

   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 4

     Kala was the youngest mate of a male called Tublat, meaning broken nose, and the child she had seen dashed to death was her first; for she was but nine or ten years old.

4. (transitive) To throw violently.

   The man was dashed from the vehicle during the accident.

   • 1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, or a natural history in ten centuries, 792:

     If you dash a stone against a stone in the bottom of the water, it maketh a sound.

   • 2018 January 24, “Irrelevant Things”, performed by C1 from LTH:

     They say that I’m way too cold, I never get tired of rappin
     My word is bang where I come from
     Watch be one work is magic
     Do it and dash it
     Smile on MAT
     No way this peng one acting
     Who got whacked and who got slapped
     And who got spared by dashes

5. (transitive, intransitive, sometimes figuratively) To sprinkle; to splatter.
   • Thomson

     On each hand the gushing waters play, / And down the rough cascade all dashing fall.

   • Tennyson

     The very source and fount of day / Is dashed with wandering isles of night.

   • Joseph Addison

     I take care to dash the character with such particular circumstance as may prevent ill-natured applications.

6. (transitive, dated) To mix, reduce, or adulterate, by throwing in something of an inferior quality.

   to dash wine with water

7. (transitive, of hopes or dreams) To ruin; to destroy.

   Her hopes were dashed when she saw the damage.

   • 2011 September 13, Sam Lyon, “Borussia Dortmund 1 - 1 Arsenal”, in BBC‎:

     Arsenal's hopes of starting their Champions League campaign with an away win were dashed when substitute Ivan Perisic's superb late volley rescued a point for Borussia Dortmund.

8. (transitive) To dishearten; to sadden.

   Her thoughts were dashed to melancholy.

9. (transitive) To complete hastily, usually with down or off.

   He dashed down his eggs, she dashed off her homework

10. (transitive) To draw quickly; jot.
    • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1

      "Scarborough," Mrs. Flanders wrote on the envelope, and dashed a bold line beneath; it was her native town; the hub of the universe.

• dash off
• gas and dash

dash

1. (euphemistic) Damn!

• hyphen
• minus sign

• ADHs, SAHD, Sadh, dahs, shad

Disputed. From Proto-Albanian *dauša, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeusóm (compare English deer, Lithuanian daũsos ‘upper air; heaven’). Alternatively from Proto-Albanian *dalša, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-l- (compare Ossetian дались (dalisʹ, “young lamb”))[1]

dash m (indefinite plural desh, definite singular dashi, definite plural deshtë)

1. ram (male sheep)

• Dash
• Dashnor

• ndesh

From English dash

dash m (definite singular dashen, indefinite plural dasher, definite plural dashene)

1. a dash (small amount)
2. short for dashbord.

• “dash” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From English dash

dash m (definite singular dashen, indefinite plural dashar, definite plural dashane)

1. a dash (small amount)
2. short for dashbord.

• “dash” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.