Dashed

How to spell dashed

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dashed

What does dashed mean?

1. verbPast tense of dash: moved or ran somewhere suddenly and quickly.
2. verbPast tense of dash: destroyed or ruined something such as hopes or plans.

Dashed in a sentence

• She dashed across the platform to catch the last train.

• The rejection letter dashed her hopes of a promotion.

• He dashed out of the meeting to take an urgent call.

• The storm dashed any chance of finishing the harvest on time.

Where does dashed come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

This is the past tense of the verb 'dash', which appears in Middle English as 'daschen', meaning to strike, knock, or hurl something violently. The word is widely thought to be imitative in origin, echoing the sharp sound of a sudden blow, and it may have been reinforced by Scandinavian relatives such as the Danish 'daske', meaning to beat or slap. Over the centuries the sense softened and split: from the idea of striking violently came both the notion of moving with sudden speed (to dash off) and the notion of shattering something, as when hopes are dashed. The mild British intensifier, as in 'dashed clever', grew up in the nineteenth century as a polite stand-in for 'damned', borrowing the punchy sound without the profanity. The spelling is straightforward once you remember it is simply 'dash' plus '-ed', with the single 'sh' and a doubled-looking ending that is really just the regular past-tense suffix.

How the word is built

• dash (to strike or move quickly)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)