Other forms: bashing, bashed, bashes
To bash is to hit something violently and repeatedly. Bash the door in, bash it with a hammer, bashed about.
It is informal and forceful, and it suggests damage rather than precision. Bash out means to produce something quickly and roughly: bash out a report. Bash on means to keep going despite difficulty, which is very British. As a noun, a bash is a heavy blow and also, informally, a party: a birthday bash. Note have a bash, meaning to attempt something without expecting to succeed.
1verbbashTo hit something violently and repeatedly.
“The prisoner bashed his fists against the cell door.”
2nounheavyA heavy blow, or informally a party.
“The birthday bash went on until about three.”
bash is a heavy blow.
The word appeared in the sixteenth century and is probably imitative, possibly influenced by a Norse verb meaning to strike. It belongs with bang, smash and crash, all coined by ear.
Old Norse
*baska — to strike
Middle English
*basshen
English, today
bash
From Middle English basshen, basken, likely from Old Norse baska (“to strike”), akin to Swedish basa (“to baste, whip, lash, flog”), Danish baske (“to beat, strike, cudgel”), German patschen (“to slap”)
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA