as in hammering
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1
as in bumping
to come into usually forceful contact with something
the car bashed into the tree with glass-shattering force
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in slamming
to deliver a blow to (someone or something) usually in a strong vigorous manner
you have to bash that door hard in order to get it open
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3
as in licking
to strike repeatedly
the angry child kept bashing her toy with a hammer until it broke
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4
as in attacking
to criticize harshly and usually publicly
in all of talk radio no other host seems to enjoy bashing liberals as much as he does
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Recent Examples of bashing
Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 15 Apr. 2026
Which seems like the anxiety Chalamet was trying to express with his needless opera bashing.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 12 Mar. 2026
Several former players have had enough of the Bam bashing.
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 12 Mar. 2026
But Beshear hasn’t turned Trump-bashing into a 24/7 vocation, or a weight-lifting contest where the winner is the critic wielding the heaviest bludgeon.
—Los Angeles Times, 1 Feb. 2026
Powell, known for a cool head and a quiet demeanor, has consistently avoided direct confrontations with Trump, even as the president's personal displeasure with the Fed chair escalated from behind the scenes pressure to public bashing.
—Nina Totenberg, NPR, 21 Jan. 2026
In the same way that writing had taught me to pay attention to life, to perpetually hoover up sensory details and bits of dialogue around me, trash bashing cultivated a new propensity for seeing interesting possibilities in everyday items.
—Literary Hub, 10 Dec. 2025
Those optics gave Democrats, particularly the moderate gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia, room to run on the economy while largely steering clear of Trump-bashing.
—Allison Morrow, CNN Money, 6 Nov. 2025
Isabel Debre, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2026
The combat element of Galactic Racer appears to be mostly centered around bashing into other racers to take them down (the folks at Fuse hail from the house of Burnout, after all), which is another MotorStorm-like wrinkle.
—Adam Ismail, The Drive, 30 Apr. 2026
After Saturday’s incident, the Trumps were furious, with both the president and first lady bashing Kimmel’s statement.
—Molly Parks, The Washington Examiner, 30 Apr. 2026
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, film audiences were flocking to gangster fare like Public Enemy, Little Caesar or Scarface – the bad guys bashing the establishment.
—Peter Bart, Deadline, 23 Apr. 2026
But things got wild when the robot started break dancing and bashing itself into a million robotic pieces.
—Matt Reigle Outkick, FOXNews.com, 21 Apr. 2026
But the data showed his cheesesteaks were very much alive and selling daily by the thousands, no matter who was bashing them online.
—Danielle Paquette The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 12 Apr. 2026
In her testimony on March 24, 2026, Arielle claimed Gerhardt tried to pull her to the edge of a steep cliff before trying to inject her with an unknown substance and eventually bashing her head with a rock.
—Samira Asma-Sadeque, PEOPLE, 9 Apr. 2026
But in regulatory filings in recent months, the company has been urging the FCC to ditch the old rules while bashing rivals who are against the change.
—Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 9 Apr. 2026
Noun
The target of our petty president’s latest bashing is Pope Leo XIV, the first American leader of the Catholic Church, who seems to be a guy with Midwestern common sense.
—Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 15 Apr. 2026
Which seems like the anxiety Chalamet was trying to express with his needless opera bashing.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 12 Mar. 2026
Several former players have had enough of the Bam bashing.
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 12 Mar. 2026
But Beshear hasn’t turned Trump-bashing into a 24/7 vocation, or a weight-lifting contest where the winner is the critic wielding the heaviest bludgeon.
—Los Angeles Times, 1 Feb. 2026
Powell, known for a cool head and a quiet demeanor, has consistently avoided direct confrontations with Trump, even as the president's personal displeasure with the Fed chair escalated from behind the scenes pressure to public bashing.
—Nina Totenberg, NPR, 21 Jan. 2026
In the same way that writing had taught me to pay attention to life, to perpetually hoover up sensory details and bits of dialogue around me, trash bashing cultivated a new propensity for seeing interesting possibilities in everyday items.
—Literary Hub, 10 Dec. 2025
Those optics gave Democrats, particularly the moderate gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia, room to run on the economy while largely steering clear of Trump-bashing.
—Allison Morrow, CNN Money, 6 Nov. 2025
Verb
Milei, at odds with the press to a degree unseen since the 1983 restoration of Argentine democracy, has escalated his media-bashing in recent weeks as his flagship campaigns against corruption and inflation falter.
—Isabel Debre, Los Angeles Times, 4 May 2026
The combat element of Galactic Racer appears to be mostly centered around bashing into other racers to take them down (the folks at Fuse hail from the house of Burnout, after all), which is another MotorStorm-like wrinkle.
—Adam Ismail, The Drive, 30 Apr. 2026
After Saturday’s incident, the Trumps were furious, with both the president and first lady bashing Kimmel’s statement.
—Molly Parks, The Washington Examiner, 30 Apr. 2026
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, film audiences were flocking to gangster fare like Public Enemy, Little Caesar or Scarface – the bad guys bashing the establishment.
—Peter Bart, Deadline, 23 Apr. 2026
But things got wild when the robot started break dancing and bashing itself into a million robotic pieces.
—Matt Reigle Outkick, FOXNews.com, 21 Apr. 2026
But the data showed his cheesesteaks were very much alive and selling daily by the thousands, no matter who was bashing them online.
—Danielle Paquette The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 12 Apr. 2026
In her testimony on March 24, 2026, Arielle claimed Gerhardt tried to pull her to the edge of a steep cliff before trying to inject her with an unknown substance and eventually bashing her head with a rock.
—Samira Asma-Sadeque, PEOPLE, 9 Apr. 2026
But in regulatory filings in recent months, the company has been urging the FCC to ditch the old rules while bashing rivals who are against the change.
—Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 9 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bashing
Noun
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Wrexham were fourth bottom of the fledgling table after the third of those three losses, a 3-1 hammering by Queens Park Rangers.—
Richard Sutcliffe,
New York Times,
6 May 2026
-
That's the part worth hammering, not that Nike is greedy or calculating.—
Dan Zaksheske OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
1 May 2026
Verb
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The new baby is expected to enter the succession fifteenth in line to the throne, bumping those behind them back a spot.—
Janine Henni,
PEOPLE,
4 May 2026
-
People start bumping into things and take up space differently.—
Lily Hautau,
CNN Money,
3 May 2026
Verb
-
The world’s second largest economy has been relatively insulated from the historic global oil crisis slamming its neighbors – including key regional US allies – due to China’s huge oil reserves, its high level of energy self-sufficiency and its early shift to green energy.—
Simone McCarthy,
CNN Money,
6 May 2026
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Stewart’s critics have been slamming her, saying there was a pattern of favoritism at city hall during her 12-year tenure.—
Don Stacom,
Hartford Courant,
3 May 2026
Verb
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But host Kristen Kish is licking her lips at the prospect of taking the show even further afield in the future.—
Peter White,
Deadline,
4 May 2026
-
At the film’s start, Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs is now an award-winning journalist, licking her wounds from a recent layoff.—
Savannah Walsh,
Vanity Fair,
1 May 2026
Verb
-
Fitz also has some stiff competition in the attacking midfield.—
Andy Greder,
Twin Cities,
7 May 2026
-
Trump and his allies are attacking democracy itself, from the rights to protest and exist freely to the rights to fair jobs and livable wages.—
Lucas Robinson,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 May 2026
Noun
-
Arsenal enters the match as the favorite, but Sporting has been resilient in the Champions League, rebounding from a 3-0 loss to tournament darlings Bodo/Glimt with a 5-0 thrashing in Lisbon.—
Pueng Vongs,
Mercury News,
15 Apr. 2026
-
His only Champions League goal arrived in January’s 6-0 thrashing of Qarabag, and his only assists in the competition came in similarly comfortable wins over Eintracht Frankfurt and Galatasaray.—
James Pearce,
New York Times,
8 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The audio recording captured the sounds of the ensuing attack, including banging, screaming, crying and choking.—
USA Today,
USA Today,
6 May 2026
-
Magic Mountain removed Revolution’s simple lap bars in 1992 and installed over-the-shoulder restraints — resulting in head-banging headaches for dismayed riders and making the coaster painfully unrideable.—
Brady MacDonald,
Oc Register,
4 May 2026
Verb
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Among the plaintiffs, two protesters faced minor charges that were quickly dropped—each accused of impeding a federal officer for slapping the agent’s phone from their hand—while the other two were charged with no crimes at all.—
Ashley Belanger,
ArsTechnica,
7 May 2026
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That meant a pre-existing zero-tariff trade environment for exporters on both sides of the Atlantic was overridden, slapping new duties onto Scotch whisky and other spirits sent to America from Britain.—
Chloe Taylor,
CNBC,
1 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Bashing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bashing. Accessed 13 May. 2026.
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