Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. anything, or anybody, exceptionally large or excellent [? influenced by sense 2].

1794		Gent.’s Mag. LXIV. I. 216/1: Smasher [...] signifies any thing larger than common.
1825		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 12 June 157/2: 9, 10, 11, and 12 Rounds were smashers.
1837		‘Plunder Creek’ in Bentley’s Misc. Feb. 125: His Narragansett mar, what is a raal smasher at a trotting.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 21 May n.p.: [of a drink] ‘What say you for stopping at the porterhouse, and get a smasher’.
1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. I 232: Gaully opallus, but aint that Boz Dickens a smasher! [...] If I could write like him, I raly should bust my dandy vest.
c.1850		F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 24: I should think she’d have a party – hain’t never gin a reglar smasher yet.
1879		Sporting Times (London) 15 Feb. 3/2: ‘A good mare, but not a smasher’.
1883		Croydon Guardian 10 Nov. 7/5: Sausages [...] made by Mr Gage. They were smashers, and simply delicious.
1884		M.V. Fuller Mrs Rasher’s Curtain Lectures 55: My wife has lately grown ambitious, / I tell you she’s a smasher!
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Jan. 2nd sect. 2/4: We thought that Bunny [i.e. a racehorse] was going to prove a smasher amongst the sprinting brigade.
1912		Truth (Sydney) 15 Dec. 7/6: They’re the slap-up heavy smashers / [...] /Cuttin’ it very fat.
1926		St Andrews Citizen 16 Oct. 8/5: He says it’s a filly [and] that she was a ‘smasher’.
1937		R. Westerby Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 96: I bought a dog last week [...] It’s a good ’un, real smasher.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 140: Smasher ... exceptionally fine.
1958		J. Osborne Epitaph for George Dillon Act I: Len’s got a new motor-bike. It’s a smasher.
1966		Leicester Square, London: [cinema hoarding] What a smasher! It is like no other film you ever saw before.

2. in attrib. use of sense 1.

1906

Sun. Times (Perth) 2 Sept. 1/1: Kirupp was recently the scene of a smasher social shivoo.

3. a hard blow, lit. or fig.

[1719		Motteux Bossu’s treatise of the epick poem [translator’s intro]138/3: Drawing back his sinewy arm, until his knuckles were close to his chin, he hit him a smasher of a blow [...] and knocked him down].
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 278: ‘Do you hope to see Scotland again?’ [...] ‘Unless, to be sure, I get a smasher on the road.’.
1827		Egan Anecdotes of the Turf, the Chase etc. 199: Spring put in a smasher with left-handed might.
1833		Bell’s Life in London 7 Apr. 3/3: Charles [...] met with a smasher on his frontispiece.
1834		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Sept. 6 n.p.: Sam gave him a terrific smasher on the mouth .
1842		Flash (NY) 31 July n.p.: Lieut M.... with both eyes in a new suit, the bridge of his nose permanently broken and several of his front teeth disloged.
1844		Era (London) 28 July 7/4: Another right-handed smasher on the conk brought forth fresh bursts of the red stream.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 166: There’s a smasher for your ivories, my fine fellow.
1860		Sporting Life (London) 17 Oct. 3/4: Tyler dropped a smasher on Gillam’s scent-box.
1897		Daily News 1 June 8/2: Before I could consider, [...] I had fetched him the smasher.
c.1890		G. Robey [perf.] ‘All for the Best’ 🎵 As a fighter I think I have gained some renown / I’ve a right that's a terrible smasher.
c.1923		G. Robey [perf.] ‘All for the Best’ 🎵 Joe Bonzo the Birmingham Basher.
1941		Britannia & Eve (London) 1 May 73/1: He gave Natty one real up-driven smasher on his flesh proboscis. ‘That poor gom!’.

4. a crushing remark, a highly negative review.

1833		John Neal Down-Easters I 91: Thank ye sir said the other, interrupting him with a good natured laugh – that’s what I call a smasher!
1842		C. Mathews Career of Puffer Hopkins 64: ‘Don’t you think it’s a serious argument against the Public Schools, sir?’ ‘It’s a smasher, Crump: an extra-hazardous smasher.’.
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 113: The bar-room is filled with drinkers, and smokers, and tobacco-chewers, equally ready for an argument, a smasher, or a fight.

5. a hard puncher.

1842		Flash (NY) 31 July n.p.: No other hand such blow could deal, / Though gauntleted in glove of steel. Bill proved himself a smasher.
1861		M.E. Braddon Trail of the Serpent 209: Jim Stilston is [...] better known (in consequence of a peculiar, playful knack he has with his dexter fist) to his friends, and the general public, as the Left-handed Smasher.

6. a pretty woman, or attractive person of either sex.

1934		J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 166: She saw Slim sitting there, looking even more spick and span than usual, a perfect smasher in his little way!
1936		J. Curtis Gilt Kid 233: She certainly was a great girl, looked a smasher and did not act the mug.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 107: Isn’t she a beauty [...] Ain’t she a smasher?
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 369: She’s a smasher all right.
1965		L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 28: You could tell she’d been a real smasher when the oul’ fella had first gotton hold of her.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 23: I’ve got a date at half past six with a girl from our place [...] She’s a smasher.
1981		S. McAughtry Belfast 111: This skirt was a smasher.
1994		C. Dexter Daughters of Cain (1995) 372: She’s getting a bit of a smasher, that one.
2000		M. Amis Experience 246: Members of both sexes were ranked as one of the following: a dud, a possible, a smasher.

7. an admirable, likeable person.

1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 71: They say he’s a smasher with the Gatling.
1960		(con. 1953) A. Wesker I’m Talking About Jerusalem II i: A funny kid [...] He’s a smasher. Misses his Mummy though.
1986		P. Barker Liza’s England (1996) 111: ‘They’ve been ever so good.’ ‘They’ve been little smashers,’ Margaret said.
2001		C. McPherson Port Authority 6: Liz was basically a smasher in many ways. Always laughing. Always in good form.