Recent Examples on the Web

After witnessing his water beetle-tadpole smackdown, Dr. Valdez, too, had written it up as a note. Cara Giaimo, New York Times, "When Bugs Crawl Up the Food Chain," 10 Aug. 2020

Each comes with a mix of melee, ranged, counter, and special attacks, and each can put the serious smackdown on large crowds of generic robo-soldier foes. Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica, "Avengers video game beta impressions: Destiny, this ain’t," 5 Aug. 2020

Unsurprisingly, the Oscar-winner manages to bring a weight and emotion to this high-stakes comic world, all while still laying the smackdown like only Theron could. Derek Lawrence, EW.com, "With The Old Guard, Charlize Theron continues her reign as Hollywood’s top action star," 13 July 2020

With the Rottweiler revealed to be the winner, a smackdown between Flower and Leopard blossomed. Erin Jensen, USA TODAY, "'The Masked Singer' recap: This singer has to leaf! Host, most of panel guessed star," 21 Nov. 2019

Fox prevailed over Butterfly, giving Butterfly a spot in the show's smackdown. Erin Jensen, USA TODAY, "'The Masked Singer' recap: A contestant's wings are clipped in competition," 5 Dec. 2019

Busch gave the fighter colorful advice for a championship smackdown, basically telling Covington not to care about your opponent, put personal feelings aside and go kick their rear end. Jenna Fryer, sun-sentinel.com, "Dead Heat: No clear favorite in NASCAR championship race," 16 Nov. 2019

The OnePlus 8, in particular, is launching in a few weeks, and that should provide a pricing smackdown for Samsung. Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, "Galaxy S20 Ultra Review—Overhyped and outrageously priced," 30 Mar. 2020

Indianapolis Star Most of the headlines and memes coming out of the Wednesday night debate rumble in Las Vegas centered around Sen. Elizabeth Warren laying the smackdown on former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Justin L. Mack, Indianapolis Star, "Democratic debate: How pundits rate Pete Buttigieg's debate performance in Las Vegas," 20 Feb. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'smackdown.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.