Green’s Dictionary of Slang

impoverished, broke.

1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair I 246: ‘Osborne,’ will cry off now, I suppose, since the family is smashed.
1854		G.T. Strong Diaries (1952) II 3 Aug. 180: Judge Bronson is smashed financially by the fall of the Empire Stone Dressing Co.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 89: He knows so many dodges, that if the Bank of England was to buy ’em at four a penny, it ’ud be smashed up before he sold ’em half.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 424/2: Two men I lodged with once, one morning hadn’t a farthing, regularly smashed up.
1861		D. DeQuille in Lingenfelter (ed.) Washoe Rambles (1963) 143: [W]e ‘busted’ surprisingly ‘flat’ while at Silver Hill. Tom was ‘smashed’ to the same harmonious level.
1877		J. Greenwood Dick Temple II 191: ‘What word is it [...] that most aptly describes your present position?’ ‘Smashed.’.
1880		Besant & Rice Seamy Side III 226: He’s smashed [...] smash is the meaning of that letter.
1905		H.G. Wells Kipps (1952) 296: I mean ’e’s orf, and our twenty-four fousand’s orf too: And ’ere we are! Smashed up!