Smackdown

How to spell smackdown

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce smackdown

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does smackdown mean?

1. nounA crushing, one-sided defeat or a forceful public confrontation.

Smackdown in a sentence

• The final score turned the match into a complete smackdown.

• The senator delivered a blunt smackdown to her critics during the debate.

Where does smackdown come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Smackdown is a recent American coinage built from two plain English elements. The verb 'smack' meaning to strike sharply with the open hand goes back to Middle Dutch and Low German 'smacken', an imitative word echoing the sound of a slap; it has been in English since the 1500s. The adverb 'down' is native Old English, ultimately from 'ofdune', meaning 'off the hill' or 'to a lower place'. Joined together, 'smackdown' literally pictures knocking an opponent flat, and it surfaced in the early 1990s in American professional wrestling, where it described a decisive beating; the televised wrestling brand of the late 1990s spread the word widely. From there it broadened into general slang for any crushing defeat or blunt public rebuke. Because it is simply two familiar words run together, the only spelling care needed is remembering it is one closed word with no hyphen.

How the word is built

• smack (a sharp blow or slap)
• down (to the ground, into defeat)