smash
Smash is slang for having sex with someone, usually casually, as in "I'd smash" or "wanna smash?". It is blunt and crude, and it says nothing about romance.
By Cal Hewitt, Gen X · Researched from public sources · ·
What it means
Smash covers wanting sex, agreeing to it and having had it, so "I'd smash", "wanna smash?" and "we smashed" are all ordinary uses. Wiktionary labels it slang and vulgar, and Know Your Meme describes "wanna smash" as a sexual proposition that people often mock as a badly chosen pickup line. Compared with a crush, which is about feelings and can exist without anything happening, smash puts the act itself up front and promises no relationship. Who it is aimed at decides how it lands. Sent straight to someone, "wanna smash?" is an invitation to have sex, and even from someone the recipient knows it can be unwelcome. Said about somebody who is not in the conversation, "I'd smash" rates that person as a sex partner. In the game smash or pass, Dictionary.com says players vote on whether they would hook up with the person shown, and it notes that many of the people being rated are unaware or never agreed to it. That is the version that reads as objectifying or invasive, especially when a real person's photo has been posted. The game also stretches the word into a joke. Dictionary.com points out that food and cartoon characters get smashed or passed too, and on TikTok the format has turned up in gentler places, like an April 2026 clip from @toomuchmariaaa of someone playing it with their grandmother. The joke still runs on the sexual sense. Smash is out of place at work, at school, in formal writing and with strangers, and it is safest among adults who already share that humor.
See the quick definition in the smash dictionary entry.
How to use it
“honestly i'd smash”
Said about someone who is not in the chat. A blunt sexual judgment about that person.
“wanna smash?”
Sent directly to someone. An invitation to have sex, with nothing more coded in it.
“smash or pass: this sandwich”
The game stretched into a joke about food. It is funny only because the sexual sense is underneath.
“anyone down to play smash tonight”
Gaming chat. Here smash means Super Smash Bros., and the sexual sense does not apply.
Where it came from
The ordinary verb is old. The Online Etymology Dictionary dates smash, meaning to break to pieces, to 1759, and calls it probably imitative, grouping it with smack, mash and crush. The sexual sense grew out of that forceful meaning as a slang metaphor.
The earliest specific online record of the sexual sense is a June 30, 2003 Urban Dictionary entry by a user named Tai, reported by Know Your Meme. That date marks the earliest record located, and no single coiner is documented. By April 12, 2008, someone on Yahoo Answers was asking what "I wanna smash" meant, and a February 2015 YouTube video, per Know Your Meme, built a joke on the double meaning, with a friend misunderstanding an invitation to play Super Smash Bros. The sexual sense came first, and the gaming pun borrowed it.
Dictionary.com says smash or pass threads began appearing on internet forums in summer 2010, and that YouTube personalities such as PewDiePie got involved beginning in December 2016. De'arra and Ken 4 Life uploaded a celebrity edition on January 10, 2017, and Markiplier's Pokemon version followed on February 12, 2022. On TikTok, Vice reported character-filter smash or pass videos from January 2022, and Know Your Meme dates the "wanna smash?" trend, set to JELEEL's song "DIVE IN!", to April 5, 2022.
No single person is credited, the origin is commonly reported.
Where it's popular
General English-language slang, heard in speech and group chats and most visible in smash or pass videos on YouTube and TikTok. It is not tied to a region.
How it caught on
- 1759The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the verb smash, meaning to break to pieces.
- June 30, 2003An Urban Dictionary entry by a user named Tai defines smash in the sexual sense, the earliest specific online record Know Your Meme reports.
- April 12, 2008A Yahoo Answers user asks what "I wanna smash" means.
- Summer 2010Dictionary.com says smash or pass threads begin appearing on internet forums.
- December 2016Dictionary.com says YouTube personalities such as PewDiePie start playing smash or pass, and Google lookups for the phrase peak in January and February 2017.
- January 10, 2017De'arra and Ken 4 Life upload a celebrity edition of smash or pass to YouTube.
- February 12, 2022Markiplier posts a Pokemon smash or pass video.
- April 5, 2022Know Your Meme dates the first TikTok in the "wanna smash?" trend, set to JELEEL's "DIVE IN!".
Test yourself
Can you read a smash?
0/21. Someone comments "i'd smash" under a photo of a celebrity. What are they saying?
2. According to Dictionary.com, where did the smash or pass game start?
Related slang
Questions people ask
What does "smash" mean in slang?
To have sex with someone, usually casually. It can describe wanting to, agreeing to or having done it, and it is the same sense used in smash or pass.
What does it mean if a girl says "smash"?
The same thing it means from anyone. Said about a person, she is saying she would have sex with them or has. Said to someone, as in "wanna smash?", it is a proposition.
What does smash mean in a relationship?
It means sex, and it says nothing about feelings or commitment. Someone who says they would smash a person is describing sexual interest, which is different from wanting to date them.
Is smash or pass asking whether you would have sex with someone?
Yes. Dictionary.com describes it as a game where players vote on whether they would hook up with the person shown. With food or cartoon characters it is played as a joke, and the joke still depends on that meaning.
What is the difference between smash, smash hit and smashed?
Smash on its own, in slang, is sexual. A smash hit is a big success, a sense the Online Etymology Dictionary dates to 1923. Smashed usually means drunk. Words like "wanna", "would" or "or pass" point to the sexual sense; "glass", "record" or "controller" point elsewhere.
Is saying you would smash someone an insult?
It is a sexual judgment about a person, so it is rarely neutral. Between adults who joke that way it can be playful. About someone who never agreed to be rated, especially with their photo posted, it reads as objectifying.
The Online Etymology Dictionary dates "smash hit" to a 1923 Variety headline, eighty years before the sexual sense turns up in an online slang dictionary.
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/smash
- https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/lemme-smash
- https://www.dictionary.com/culture/slang/smash-or-pass
- https://knowyourmeme.com/sensitive/memes/smash-or-pass
- https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wanna-smash--2
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/smash
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/smash-or-pass-and-the-eternal-appeal-of-online-thirst/
- https://www.dictionary.com/browse/smashed
- https://www.tiktok.com/@toomuchmariaaa/video/7627166552294509838
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