smasher, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Probably transferred use of general English slang smasher anything uncommon or unusual, especially anything exceptionally large or excellent.
obs. except in historical contexts
In full smasher hat: a soft felt hat with a wide brim; a slouched hat.
1891 E. Glanville Fossicker 156The Dutchmen stared at him from under the brims of their felt ‘smashers’.
1892 J.R. Couper Mixed Humanity 4A wide-awake, called in South Africa a smasher.
1899 G.H. Russell Under Sjambok 107The men..are content to put a piece of crape round the arm and smasher hat.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 451Smasher, A soft felt hat with a broad brim, made familiar to the people in England first by the Rhodesian troops at the Jubilee festivities, 1887.
1921 W.C. Scully Harrow 116As the force withdrew, seven Boers stood up on the crests of seven respective koppies several hundred yards apart from each other and waved their smasher hats in sarcastic farewell.
1937 J. Stevenson-Hamilton S. Afr. Eden 168His clothes consisted merely of a pair of lion-skin breeches, self-made, a very inadequate shirt, and a smasher hat.
1972 P. Gibbs Hist. of BSAP I. 136[During the Jameson Raid] the RMP wore..grey felt ‘smasher’ hats — as they were known — the broad brim pinned up on the left side and the crown of the hat wrapped round with a blue puggaree with white spots.
In full smasher hat:a soft felt hat with a wide brim; a slouched hat.
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18911972