Definition of "dash"

The oar squeaks,a dash sound likemoon-hustle on the river:

1987, Archie Randolph Ammons, “Coming Round”, in Robert Pack, Jay Parini, editors, Introspections: American poets on one of their own poems, Hanover and London: University Press of New England for Middlebury College Press, published 1997, page 18

They say that I’m way too cold, I never get tired of rappinMy word is bang where I come fromWatch be one work is magicDo it and dash itSmile on MATNo way this peng one actingWho got whacked and who got slappedAnd who got spared by dashes

2018 January 24, “Irrelevant Things”, performed by C1 from LTH

The dash clock said 2:38 when […] I turned off a dirt road […] .

1955 October 19, Rex Stout, The Next Witness, Three Witnesses, 94 Bantam, page 31

The traditional practice of offering gifts or "dash" to chiefs has often been misinterpreted by scholars to provide a cultural explanation for the pervasive incidence of bribery and corruption in modern Africa.

1992, George B. N. Ayittey, Africa betrayed, page 44

Writing in 1924 on a similar situation in Ugep, the political officer, Mr. S. T. Harvey noted: "In the old days there was no specified dowry but merely dashes given to the father-in-law […]

2006, Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo, The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria, 1885-1950, page 99

The only other times you'll be asked for a dash is from beggars.

2008, Lizzie Williams, Nigeria: The Bradt Travel Guide, page 84

Sir Thomas looks as if to ask what the dash is that to you! but wanting still to go to India again, and knowing how strong the Newcomes are in Leadenhall Street, he thinks it necessary to be civil to the young cub, and swallows his pride once more into his waistband. / Comment: Some editions leave this passage out. Of those that include it, some change the 'you!' to 'you?'.

1853, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Newcomes, Chapter VI, serialized in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, (VIII, no. 43, Dec 1853) p. 118

Who the dash is this person whom none of us know? and what the dash does he do here?

1884, Lord Robert Gower, My Reminiscences, reprinted in "The Evening Lamp", The Christian Union, (29) 22, (May 29, 1884) p. 524

-i hope you find at least one thing on your dash that will make you laugh today.

2018, anonymous, quoted in Mélanie Bourdaa, "'May We Meet Again': Social Bonds, Activities, and Identities in the #Clexa Fandom", in A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies (ed. Paul Booth), page 392

i cannot tell you how happy it makes me when i see my dash filled with selfies from other folks who look like me.

2018, "notthesameknowledge", quoted in Randall Lake, Recovering Argument, unnumbered page

“You wanna know what else is all over my dash? Gifs of you and your boyfriend."

2018, Krista Ritchie, Becca Ritchie, Alphas Like Us, unnumbered page

As our train to Paris dashed through the labyrynthine flyovers at Porchefontaine, barely a mile from Versailles, the 75 m.p.h. limit was already almost attained.

1961 November, H. G. Ellison, P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 670

There were the tawny rocks, like lions couchant, defying the ocean, whose waves incessantly dashed against and scoured them with vast quantities of gravel.

1865, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Shipwreck”, in [Sophia Thoreau and William Ellery Channing], editors, Cape Cod, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, page 14

Silence! If you make a sound I shall take him and dash his brains out before your very eyes.

1897, Bram Stoker, chapter XXI, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library

Kala was the youngest mate of a male called Tublat, meaning broken nose, and the child she had seen dashed to death was her first; for she was but nine or ten years old.

1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co.; republished as chapter IV, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June,

If you dash a stone against a stone in the bottom of the water, it maketh a sound.

1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], paragraph 792

The rooks are blown about the skies;The forest crack’d, the waters curl’d,⁠The cattle huddled on the lea;⁠And wildly dash’d on tower and treeThe sunbeam strikes along the world: […]

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto XV, page 24

They say that I’m way too cold, I never get tired of rappin / My word is bang where I come from / Watch be one work is magic / Do it and dash it / Smile on MAT / No way this peng one acting / Who got whacked and who got slapped / And who got spared by dashes

2018 January 24, “Irrelevant Things”, performed by C1 from LTH

On each hand the gushing waters play, / And down the rough cascade white-dashing fall.

1728, James Thomson, “Spring”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768

The very source and fount of day / Is dash'd with wandering isles of night.

1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], (please specify |part=prologue or epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX)

[W]hen I draw any faulty character, I consider all those persons to whom the malice of the world may possibly apply it, and take care to dash it with such particular circumstances as may prevent all such ill-natured applications.

1712 January 11 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, December 31, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 262; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, page 305

Arsenal's hopes of starting their Champions League campaign with an away win were dashed when substitute Ivan Perisic's superb late volley rescued a point for Borussia Dortmund.

2011 September 13, Sam Lyon, “Borussia Dortmund 1 – 1 Arsenal”, in BBC‎

"Scarborough," Mrs. Flanders wrote on the envelope, and dashed a bold line beneath; it was her native town; the hub of the universe.

1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter I, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960,

Going out the door, he grabbed a windbreaker and dashed a note to his father and left it on the entry table.

2003, Robert Andrews, A Murder of Promise, page 198