Smash vs Pierce - What's the difference?
smash | pierce |
The sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.
(British, colloquial) A traffic accident.
(colloquial, entertainment) Something very successful.
* 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]
(tennis) A very hard overhead shot hit sharply downward.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=July 3
, author=Piers Newbury
, title=Wimbledon 2011: Novak Djokovic beats Rafael Nadal in final
, work=BBC Sport
(colloquial, archaic) bankruptcy
To break (something brittle) violently.
* 1895 , , (The Time Machine) , Chapter X
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=28, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= 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.
to puncture; to break through
* Dryden
to create a hole in the skin for the purpose of inserting jewelry
to break or interrupt abruptly
(figurative) To penetrate; to affect deeply.
* Alexander Pope
* Shakespeare
As a noun smash
is the sound of a violent impact; a violent striking together.As a verb smash
is to break (something brittle) violently.As a proper noun pierce is
, medieval variant of piers modern usage may also derive from the surname.smash
English
Noun
(smashes)- I could hear the screech of the brakes, then the horrible smash of cars colliding.
- The driver and two passengers were badly injured in the smash .
- This new show of mine is sure to be a smash .
- 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.
- A smash may not be as pretty as a good half volley, but it can still win points.
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.}}
Synonyms
* (sound of a violent impact ): crash * (colloquial: traffic accident ): crash * (colloquial: something very successful ): smash hitVerb
(es)- 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.
High and wet, passage=Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale.
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 ): shatterAnagrams
* English ergative verbs ----pierce
English
Verb
- The diver pierced the surface of the water with scarcely a splash.
- to pierce''' the enemy's line; a shot '''pierced the ship
- I pierce her tender side.
- Can you believe he pierced his tongue?
- A scream pierced the darkness.
- to pierce a mystery
- pierced with grief
- Can no prayers pierce thee?