[Vocabulary] to smash

[dilodi83]

I cannot understand the meaning of the verb "to smash" in this sentence:

- A big, old tree fell down last night, and smashed a hole in our roof.

Does it mean to make a hole, or to hit a hole that had already been made in the roof?

 

[5jj]

It made the hole.

 

[emsr2d2]

1. If the tree "smashed a hole in the roof", then the tree was the cause of the hole.
2. If the tree "smashed through a hole in the roof", I would assume the hole was already there and the tree happened to enter the roof at exactly that point.
3. If the tree "smashed a hole through the roof" - in that case, the tree was the cause, as in the first example.

This shows the importance of word order. Look at the position of "through" and "in" in examples 2 and 3, but the difference in meaning.

 

[dilodi83]

It made the hole.

Is it an English combination of words? Is the verb "smash" used only with hole, with this meaning?
I haven't found anything about it on the dictionaries I have...

 

[emsr2d2]

No, we can smash a lot of things.

He smashed me in the face.
She smashed the glass.
He smashed her favourite vase by dropping it on the floor.
He's completely smashed. (Slang - smashed = drunk).

 

[dilodi83]

But, If I caught the meaning of all the sentences you've written, it could be several meanings...because in my sentence "smash" sounds like "to make", in your sentences, it sounds more like "to hit"...Am i right?

 

[emsr2d2]

In your example, a hole was made by the action of the tree smashing through the roof.