dash

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dash/daʃ/

▶verb

• 1 run or travel in a great hurry.

• 2 strike or fling with great force.

• 3 destroy or frustrate (hopes or expectations).

• 4 (dash something off) write something hurriedly and without much thought.

▶exclamation Brit. informal used to express mild annoyance. ▶noun

• 1 an act of dashing.

  ■ chiefly N. Amer. a sprint.

• 2 a small quantity of a substance that is added to something else.

  ■ a small amount of a particular quality adding distinctiveness to something: a dash of sophistication.

• 3 a horizontal stroke in writing, marking a pause or to represent omitted letters or words.

  ■ the longer signal of the two used in Morse code.

  ■ Music a short vertical mark placed above or beneath a note to indicate that it is to be performed staccato.

• 4 vigour and confidence; panache.

• 5 informal short for dashboard.

– derivatives
dasher noun.

– origin ME: prob. symbolic of forceful movement.