Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a euph. for damn! excl.

1831		Morn. Post (London) 15 Sept. 4/1: That damn’d old Wetherell and Peel have soaped our Jack [...] Dash me but ne’er a bit of Milton’s dirty green shall hang on my poll again.
1849		Morn. Post (London) 17 Feb. 6/5: Dash! my old Lappets!
c.1890		R.G. Knowles [perf. ] ‘Adam Missed It’ 🎵 She turns round and by and by, / Shoots her hat-pin in your eye / You say, ‘Dash'’and she says, ‘Sir’.
1905		H.G. Wells Kipps (1952) 211: ‘Oh, desh!’ said Kipps.
1916		Dover Exp. 11 Feb. 8/3: Oh, dash! I’ve lost my Registration Card.
1922		E. Raymond Tell England (1965) 57: Oh, dash!
1930		D. Mackail Young Livingstones 270: Dash! I’d meant to go to Brighton.
c.1943		S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 6: Damn: drat, durn, darn, damnation, dash, [crossed out: dash, tarnation].
1944		Dundee Courier 28 Nov. 2/3: Oh, dash! That’s torn it, literally—.
1992		M. Frayn Now You Know 197: ‘Dash’ and ‘damn’ [...] And even worse things.