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to bash out

to bash out

7.2
To make writing or music quickly without much care
  • phrasal verb
  • /bæʃ aʊt/
  • Informal
translation icon : escribir rápidamente
  • So I sat down and bashed out a first draft in thirty days.

Examples

  • He bashed out the song in just a few hours, not worrying too much about the details.

  • Now I'm not sure whether the other Daily Mail Online readers who voted this comment up felt sorry for Arthur, or just saw "collect rubbish every day" and "Libor joke" and decided to ignore the fact that what Arthur had bashed out on his keyboard made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

    Blog text (16)
  • After a long day at work, she managed to bash out a quick blog post before dinner.

  • On the train, I bashed out an outline for my essay, eager to finish it before the deadline.

Synonyms

to crank out
vsto bash out
  • Informal
16 4.0

To make many things quickly, often without much care

is about single quick creations rather than mass routine production
to knock off
vsto bash out
  • Informal
4 6.1

Make something quickly with little effort

tends to mean quick creation rather than routine or repetitive work
to dash off
vsto bash out
3 5.1

To write something quickly without much care

is about quick production without implying extreme urgency
to grind out
vsto bash out
  • Informal
2 6.0

Make many things like reports or products in a dull routine way

focuses on quick careless creation rather than prolonged monotonous work
to bang out
vsto bash out
  • Informal
1 6.6

Make or finish something quickly with little effort

leans more toward casual creation without stressing mechanical routine
to shit out
vsto bash out
  • Offensive
1 9.9

Make something quickly without much care

is the same idea but neutral in tone rather than crude
to toss off
vsto bash out
  • Informal
8.1

To make something quickly with little effort

emphasizes speed plus lack of care rather than just low effort
to fling off
vsto bash out
  • Informal
7.3

To write something quickly without much effort

stresses quickness and low care generally, not only lack of polish

Antonyms

93 4.0

Make something better by making a few small changes

22 4.1

To make something better by small changes

How Fast

to crank out
  • Informal
16 4.0
to bash out
  • Informal
7.2
to produce
2.0
to write
1.0
to compose
102 3.5

Surface Forms

bash out infinitive
bashing out present participle
bashes out third person singular
bashed out past
bashed out past participle

Morphology

bash + out

The sense 'produce quickly and without much care' is partly derivable because 'bash' suggests forceful/rough action and the particle 'out' often marks producing or completing something, so together they can imply roughly churning something out. However this is a metaphorical extension from 'strike' to 'make' and depends on phrasal-verb usage, so a B1 learner who only knows the literal words may not fully predict the idiomatic nuance without prior exposure.

Etymology

Bash out may come from the image of someone bashing something out with a hammer to force a shape or piece out quickly. That's why it now means 'to produce something quickly and without much care'.