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the act of beating, whipping, or thrashing:
a series of unsolved bashings and robberies.
a decisive defeat:
We gave the visiting team a good bashing.

unprovoked physical assaults against members of a specified group:
gay-bashing.
verbal abuse, as of a group or a nation:
feminist-bashing; China-bashing.

to strike with a crushing or smashing blow.
Chiefly British, Canadian. to hurl harsh verbal abuse at.
a crushing blow.
Informal. a thoroughly enjoyable, lively party.
have a bash (at), British. to attempt; make an attempt.
on the bash, British. working as a prostitute.
Contemporary Examples

Perhaps some expected me to begin my parliamentary career by bashing heads, literally.
Vitali Klitschko Contemplates Bowing Out of the Ring and Entering Ukrainian Politics Gordon Marino March 25, 2013

“Nobody is bashing business,” Axelrod insisted, to boos from the audience.
Obama Woos Liberal Elite Lloyd Grove June 28, 2011

Left for dead, Gingrich wins big by bashing the media, Mitt and the “elites.”
Newt Gingrich Scores Major Upset in South Carolina Primary Howard Kurtz January 21, 2012

Detroit bashing aside, the mom and self-declared “PR chick” admits her city has its weight problems.
Lena Dunham’s ‘I’m thin for, like, Detroit’ Comment Gets Motowners Fired Up Abby Haglage January 17, 2013

Stop it with the gay jokes, stop with the bashing, stop with the fear.
Another Gay Teen Suicide Claire Howorth October 1, 2010

Historical Examples

Honest to God, when you gas like that I feel like bashing in your brain, if you’ve got any!
Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man Marie Conway Oemler

In a second Harve had him tripped and thrown and was down on him bashing in his face for him.
Back Home Irvin S. Cobb

Troth, and I’ve had a bashing once afore, and what I’ve had once I can do with agin.
Six Years in the Prisons of England A Merchant – Anonymous

But as you say, what’s been done can’t be remedied by bashing in a man’s head.
Parrot & Co. Harold MacGrath

Nick continued to ponder the strange men and the woman he was coming home to, but it was like bashing his head against a wall.
The Sex Life of the Gods Michael Knerr

verb
(transitive) to strike violently or crushingly
(transitive; often foll by in, down, etc) to smash, break, etc, with a crashing blow: to bash a door down
(intransitive) foll by into. to crash (into); collide (with): to bash into a lamppost
to dent or be dented: this tin is bashed, this cover won’t bash easily
noun
a heavy blow, as from a fist
a dent; indentation
a party
(informal) have a bash, to make an attempt
v.

“to strike violently,” 1640s, perhaps of Scandinavian origin, from Old Norse *basca “to strike” (cf. Swedish basa “to baste, whip, flog, lash,” Danish baske “to beat, strike, cudgel”); or the whole group might be independently derived and echoic. Figurative sense of “abuse verbally or in writing” is from 1948. Related: Bashed; bashing.
n.

“a heavy blow,” 1805, from bash (v.). Meaning “an attempt” is attested by 1948. On a bash “on a drunken spree” is slang from 1901, which gave the word its sense of “party.”

noun

A party, esp a good, exciting one: Her little soiree turned into a real bash (1940s+)
An attempt; crack, whack: Let’s have a bash at moving this thing (1940s+ British)

verb

To hit; clobber, sock (1860s+)
To criticize, esp destructively: bashing Google more than Microsoft now