What does dashed mean?
'Dashed' is best known as the past tense and past participle of the verb 'to dash', which means to move suddenly and rapidly, often with urgency or recklessness. It also carries a violent figurative sense: to smash something against a surface, as in 'dashed to pieces', and by extension to destroy intangibles such as hopes, dreams, or expectations — a usage that remains firmly current in phrases like 'their hopes were dashed'. Separately, in British English, 'dashed' functions as a mild expletive adjective, a polite substitute for 'damn' popular in Victorian and early twentieth-century writing, giving phrases such as 'a dashed nuisance'. The verb itself connotes speed, force, and suddenness, which makes 'dashed' vivid in both physical and emotional contexts. Whether describing someone sprinting for a train or ambitions brought abruptly to nothing, the word compresses energy and disappointment into a single sharp syllable-plus-t, making it both versatile and expressive.
Past tense and past participle of 'dash': to run or move suddenly and fast, or to strike or throw something forcefully so as to break it.
"She dashed to catch the last bus home."
Also common in the figurative phrase 'hopes were dashed'.
Chiefly British, informal: used as a mild euphemism for 'damn', expressing annoyance.
"That dashed cat has knocked my mug off the table again."
Now somewhat dated and characteristically British.
Victorian Britons who wanted to swear without swearing reached for 'dashed' — turning one of English's most violent verbs into its politest curse.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of dashed
'Dashed' derives from the verb 'dash', which appeared in English in the late medieval period, probably in the fourteenth century, though its ultimate origin is uncertain — it may be of Scandinavian origin, and it has no clear classical cognates. Originally it meant to strike or smash violently, and the sense of rapid running developed later. The British slang use as an euphemism for 'damn' arose in the eighteenth century, part of a broader fashion for softened oaths.
Related word forms
How dashed is actually used
As an adjective, 'dashed' is distinctly British, somewhat old-fashioned, and informal — the kind of word associated with mid-20th-century fiction. In American English it survives mainly as the past tense of 'dash'. The sense of having one's hopes 'dashed' remains common on both sides of the Atlantic.
Easily confused with dashed
'Dash' can refer to a punctuation mark (—) or the act of running quickly, while 'dashed' is its past-tense form or, in British slang, an expletive meaning 'damned'.