smash n.2
1. (UK Und.) counterfeit money [? it smashes the hopes of those who use it].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | New Dict. Cant (1795). | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Life and Trial of James Mackcoull 183: A poor money-dealer can never do any good until he makes a smash! | |
| Modern Flash Dict. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open. | |
| Police! 332: All I could hear was, there was more ‘smash’ and ‘fins’ doing now than ever, but they had been doing smash, and had had to do a ‘scooper’ from somewhere. |
2. (also smesh) cash, usu. change [rhy. sl.; the note has also been ‘broken’].
| Autobiog. 13: M’Guire got L.7 of smash; I got a L.10 bank-note. | |
| Paul Clifford I 14: Tannies to-day may be smash to-morrow! | |
| Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 34/1: I ‘slung’ him one of the paper notes of French money, and he gave me a fistful of ‘smash’ in return. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | ‘Fanny Flukem’s Ball’ in Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) in Larrikins (1973) 40: Then Fat Mag sailed in and mixed it, / And said, ‘You ice-cream trash, / I didn’t come in on the nod, / But parted up my smash.’. | |
| Soul Market 274: ‘I am the depety; give us yer ’oof.’ The old woman had to explain to me that he was asking for my money. Mr. C. came up and gave him a shilling. He took it and told us to come up to the ‘orffice for yer smash.’ This I understood to mean the change. | |
| Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/4: [We] chopped up £14 each and 16/- in smash. | |
| Cheapjack 248: ‘Scarper and mind your smash, son,’ he whispered. | |
| We Were the Rats 82: The man whose only ambition is to amass smash. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Hey, Sucker 87: When you hear a carnie say he’s going ‘to smooch some smesh’ – he means he’s going to borrow small money. | |
| No Hiding Place! 192/1: Smash. Silver coins. | |
| Junkie (1966) 22: He was hitting me for ‘smash’ (change) at regular intervals. | |
| (con. 1944) Rats in New Guinea 10: He’d finish up owning the place. He’d amass all their smash. He’d get the bloody lot. | |
| Sheeper 106: Soon I was buying his drink and meals, and he was hitting me for ‘smash’. | |
| Anatomy of Crime 192: Blow me if the connaught didn’t scarper (Scapa Flow: go) with my smash (cash). | |
| Lowspeak. | |
| Filth 38: I work off all my smash on to the cunt, counting it into his hands. | |
 | Kelly + Victor 66: I dig into me pocket an pull out a handful of smash, count it — 32p — an give it to her. | |
| Viva La Madness 367: It was Bridget’s shoebox money, the smash she keeps for emergencies. | |
| More You Bet 62: This [...] folded-over unbundled money, that is, this ‘loose money’ which was, and is, simply known as ‘the loose’ or ‘the smash’. |
3. (UK prison) tobacco, in its role as prison ‘cash’.
| Five Years’ Penal Servitude 121: His ‘mate’ soon finds out who the ‘blooming screw’ is that ‘slung the smash,’ i.e. brought in the tobacco. |
In compounds
1. a silver spoon.
| Dict. of the Flash or Cant Lang. 165: Smashfeeder – a silver spoon. | |
| in ‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue. | |
| , | | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
| Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 88: Smash Feeder - Silver Spoon. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. Smash Feeder, spoons apparently made of silver. |
2. a Britannia-metal spoon, made from a metal resembling silver but in fact an alloy of tin and regulus of antimony; the best counterfeit coins were made from such spoons.
| Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 219: smashfeeder a Britannia metal spoon, ? the best imitation shillings are made from this metal. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
In phrases
(UK Und.) to pass counterfeit money.
| Birmingham Dly Post 26 Dec. 3/4: ‘I had to enter shops, and having purchased some trifling article, do a “smash” [...] I have “smashed” as much as 30s a day’. |