smash-and-grab
adjective
chiefly British
—used to describe a robbery that is done by breaking a window of a car, store, etc., and stealing whatever can be taken quickly
a smash-and-grab robbery/thief
Examples of smash-and-grab in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
On Monday, April 20, Elite Sports Cards in Chicago was broken into in a smash-and-grab heist resulting in the loss of $100,000 of merchandise, Ronnie Holloway, the owner of the sports card shop told ABC Chicago station WLS-TV.
—
ABC News, 22 Apr. 2026
Burglars targeted a sports card and comic store in a smash-and-grab in Chicago's Dunning neighborhood early Monday morning.
—Desiree Evans, CBS News, 20 Apr. 2026
Around that same time, investigators were trying to unravel a possibly unrelated local smash-and-grab theft ring targeting Lego toys.
—Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2026
This was not a smash-and-grab from Atleti.
—Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for smash-and-grab
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
ABC News, 22 Apr. 2026
Burglars targeted a sports card and comic store in a smash-and-grab in Chicago's Dunning neighborhood early Monday morning.
—Desiree Evans, CBS News, 20 Apr. 2026
Around that same time, investigators were trying to unravel a possibly unrelated local smash-and-grab theft ring targeting Lego toys.
—Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2026
This was not a smash-and-grab from Atleti.
—Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for smash-and-grab
Cite this Entry
“Smash-and-grab.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/smash-and-grab. Accessed 27 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
