dash

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dæʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃ

Noun

dash (plural dashes)

1. (typography) Any of the following symbols: ‒ (figure dash), – (en dash), — (em dash), or ― (horizontal bar).
   1. (colloquial) Also used to refer to a hyphen or minus sign.
2. (by extension) The longer of the two symbols of Morse code.
3. A short run.
4. A small quantity of a liquid substance etc.; less than 1/8 of a teaspoon.

   Add a dash of vinegar

5. Vigor.

   Aren't we full of dash this morning?

6. 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 […] .

7. (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.

8. (dated, euphemistic) A stand-in for a censored word, like "Devil" or "damn". (Compare deuce.)
   • 1824, "Kiddywinkle History, No. II", Blackwood's Magazine (15, May 1824) p. 540

     I'll be dashed if I gan another step for less 'an oaf.

   • 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?

   • 1939, P. G. Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime Chapter 8

     I'll be dashed if I squash in with any domestic staff.

Verb

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.

   • Francis Bacon

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

5. (transitive) To sprinkle; to splatter.
   • Thomson

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

6. (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.

7. (transitive) To dishearten; to sadden.

   Her thoughts were dashed to melancholy.

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

   He dashed down his eggs, she dashed off her homework

9. 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.

10. To throw in or on in a rapid, careless manner; to mix, reduce, or adulterate, by throwing in something of an inferior quality; to overspread partially; to bespatter; to touch here and there.

    to dash wine with water; to dash paint upon a picture

    • Addison

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

    • Tennyson

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

Interjection

dash

1. (euphemistic) Damn!

See also

• hyphen
• minus sign

Anagrams

• ADHs, SAHD, Sadh, dahs, shad

Etymology

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]

Noun

dash m (indefinite plural desh)

1. ram (male sheep)

References

Etymology

From English dash

Noun

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

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

References

• “dash” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology

From English dash

Noun

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

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

References

• “dash” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.