Dictionary

basher en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˈbæʃə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ˈbæʃɚ/ (General-American)

Etymology

Etymology tree English bash Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English basher From bash + -er.

Meanings

1. One who bashes something, figuratively or literally.
   • Consider the cold-eyed thrush, that springy carnivore of lawns, worm stabber, basher to death of snails. 1967, J. A. Baker, The Peregrine, page 14:
2. One who bashes something, figuratively or literally. ▸ Before the days of pneumatic rivet guns, the member of a riveting team who hammered the rivet to upset the bucktail to form the field head (see rivet).
3. (informal) One who engages in gratuitous physical or verbal attacks on a group or type of people.
   • a Paki-basher
   • It's impossible to count how many harassers and bashers are growing discouraged at the sight of 12 or so queers in black and teal uniforms walking down the street in tight formation. The message is simple: queer folk are banding together and walking the streets in cities around the United States to protect their own. 1991 August 17, Steve Karpf, “Don't Tread On Us!”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 5, page 1:
   • He was beaten up by a queer-basher.
4. (UK, slang) A trainspotter, especially one who likes to travel on specific trains or trainlines.
   • There are bashers and bashers, of course. Most of them, like 'Bob', try to travel as far as possible behind a particular type of locomotive. 'Bob' likes Class 37 diesels. 2004, Ian Marchant, Parallel Lines, Bloomsbury, →ISBN:
   • Determined 'bashers' do still ride trains, of course, seeking to cram the largest number of route-miles into 24 hours. 2017, Ian Carter, British railway enthusiasm, page 102:
   • Nose around any modest-sized station and the odds are you'll find that the chargeman's office doubles as a bashers' club, a place where shivering spotters can get warm and catch up on the gen. 2015, Nicholas Whittaker, Platform Souls: The Trainspotter as 20th-Century Hero:
5. (slang) A rainproof sheet for sleeping under.
   • I was well used to sleeping out under the stars whatever the weather. I had a hammock and a basher, a rain sheet to go over where I was sleeping. 2018, John-Paul Jordan, Joys of War:
   • Suddenly awake she looked around, startled, it was light, hot, intensely hot and she was sleeping in a shell scrape under a basher. 2014, LA Clarke, Callsign Whiskey, page 24:
6. (slang) A shelter built from improvised materials by a homeless person.
7. A kind of small floodlight.

Forms

Deriveds

button-basher · trans basher · button basher · Pommy-basher · Bible basher · pommie basher · Pommie-basher · Koran basher · bush-basher · fag basher · earbasher · queer basher · gay basher · hand-basher