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Mash vs Smash - What's the difference?

mash | smash |

As nouns the difference between mash and smash

is that mash is a mesh while smash is the sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.

As verbs the difference between mash and smash

is that mash is to convert into a mash; to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; to bruise; to crush; as, to mash apples in a mill, or potatoes with a pestle. Specifically (Brewing), to convert, as malt, or malt and meal, into the mash which makes wort while smash is to break (something brittle) violently.

As an acronym MASH

is mobile Army Surgical Hospital.

mash

English

Etymology 1

See mesh

Noun

(es)
  • (obsolete) A mesh
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) mash, . See (l).

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A mass of mixed ingredients reduced to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; a mass of anything in a soft pulpy state.
  • In brewing, ground or bruised malt, or meal of rye, wheat, corn, or other grain (or a mixture of malt and meal) steeped and stirred in hot water for making the wort.
  • Mashed potatoes.
  • A mixture of meal or bran and water fed to animals.
  • (obsolete): A mess; trouble.
  • (Beaumont and Fletcher)
    Derived terms
    * mash tun * mash vat

    Verb

    (es)
  • To convert into a mash; to reduce to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; to bruise; to crush; as, to mash apples in a mill, or potatoes with a pestle. Specifically (Brewing), to convert, as malt, or malt and meal, into the mash which makes wort.
  • To press down hard (on).
  • to mash on a bicycle pedal
  • (transitive, southern US, informal) to press.
  • (UK) To prepare a cup of tea (in a teapot), alternative to brew; used mainly in Northern England
  • * 1913 ,
  • He took the kettle off the fire and mashed the tea.
    Derived terms
    * mashing * mashed potato, mashed potatoes * bangers and mash * mashup

    Etymology 3

    Either Mash Note] at World Wide Words[http://books.google.com/books?id=j41z0yeKbeIC&pg=PA195&dq=masher The City in Slang], by Irving L. Allen, [http://books.google.com/books?id=j41z0yeKbeIC&pg=PA195&dq=masher p. 195] by analogy withThe Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology,'' as cited at [http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/03/mash-notes.html The Grammarphobia Blog: Mash notes], March 16, 2007 . Originally used in theater,Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang and recorded in US in 1870s. Either originally used as mash, or a backformation from (masher), from (masha). Leland writes of the etymology:Preface to poem “The Masher”, in his ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=B2GmNo96450C Songs of the Sea and Lays of the Land], [http://books.google.com/books?id=B2GmNo96450C&printsec=frontcover
  • PPA243,M1 p. 243] ([http://www.archive.org/stream/songsofthesea00lelarich/songsofthesea00lelarich_djvu.txt full text)
  • : It was introduced by the well-known gypsy family of actors, C., among whom Romany was habitually spoken. The word “masher” or “mash” means in that tongue to allure, delude, or entice. It was doubtless much aided in its popularity by its quasi-identity with the English word. But there can be no doubt as to the gypsy origin of “mash” as used on the stage. I am indebted for this information to the late well-known impresario [Albert Marshall] Palmer of New York, and I made a note of it years before the term had become at all popular.

    Verb

  • to flirt, to make eyes, to make romantic advances
  • Noun

    (es)
  • (obsolete) an infatuation, a crush, a fancy
  • (obsolete) a dandy, a masher
  • (obsolete) the object of one’s affections (either sex)
  • Derived terms
    * (l) * (l)

    References

    Anagrams

    * * * *

    smash

    English

    Noun

    (smashes)
  • The sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.
  • I could hear the screech of the brakes, then the horrible smash of cars colliding.
  • (British, colloquial) A traffic accident.
  • The driver and two passengers were badly injured in the smash .
  • (colloquial, entertainment) Something very successful.
  • This new show of mine is sure to be a smash .
  • * 2012 , Tom Lamont, How Mumford & Sons became the biggest band in the world'' (in ''The Daily Telegraph , 15 November 2012)[http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/nov/15/mumford-sons-biggest-band-world]
  • Soundcheck for the band, today, takes place at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It is late afternoon and while the arena's 17,000 outdoor seats are still empty the four members of Mumford & Sons – prospering British folk band, in the middle of a long tour of Australia, the US and the UK, their newly released album Babel a smash on all fronts – wander to centre stage.
  • (tennis) A very hard overhead shot hit sharply downward.
  • A smash may not be as pretty as a good half volley, but it can still win points.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=July 3 , author=Piers Newbury , title=Wimbledon 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in final , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=A Nadal forehand into the net gave Djokovic the set and the Spaniard appeared rattled, firing a smash over the baseline in a rare moment of promise at 30-30 at the start of the third.}}
  • (colloquial, archaic) bankruptcy
  • Synonyms

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

    Verb

    (es)
  • To break (something brittle) violently.
  • * 1895 , , (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.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= High and wet , passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.
  • To hit extremely hard.
  • (figuratively) To ruin completely and suddenly.
  • (figuratively) To defeat overwhelmingly.
  • (US) To deform through continuous pressure.
  • To be destroyed by being smashed.
  • (transitive, slang, vulgar, of a man) To have sexual intercourse with.
  • Synonyms

    * (break violently ): dash, shatter * (hit extremely hard ): pound, thump, wallop * (ruin completely and suddenly ): dash * (defeat overwhelmingly ): slaughter, trounce * (be destroyed by being smashed ): shatter

    Anagrams

    * English ergative verbs ----