swish
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Swish
Etymology
From noun, imitative of the sound [1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /swɪʃ/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪʃ
Adjective
swish (comparative swisher or more swish, superlative swishest or most swish)
- (British, colloquial) sophisticated; fashionable; smooth.
- This restaurant looks very swish — it even has linen tablecloths.
- 2020 June 3, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: Cambridge”, in Rail, page 23:
- All the shabby railway buildings in front of the station concourse have either been removed or transformed into a shopping complex and swish homes.
- Attractive, stylish
- 2004, “Ladyflash”, in Thunder, Lightning, Strike, performed by The Go! Team:
- When the boys go swish, they always score
- 2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian:
- The Saints, who started the day third in the table, went marching on thanks to their own swish play and some staggering defending by the visitors.
- Effeminate.
Derived terms
Translations
Noun
swish (countable and uncountable, plural swishes)
- A short rustling, hissing or whistling sound, often made by friction.
- A hissing, sweeping movement through the air, as of an animal's tail.
- 2011, A. C. August, The Highway Cross, page 116:
- As she trotted down the white path, each swish of her tail sent petals dancing through the air, falling where the bride would walk.
- A sound of liquid flowing inside a container.
- [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC:
- There were four or five men in the vault already, and I could hear more coming down the passage, and guessed from their heavy footsteps that they were carrying burdens. There was a sound, too, of dumping kegs down on the ground, with a swish of liquor inside them, and then the noise of casks being moved.
- A twig or bundle of twigs, used for administering beatings; a switch
- (basketball) A successful basketball shot that does not touch the rim or backboard.
- (cricket) A rapid or careless attacking stroke by the batter.
- (slang) An effeminate male homosexual.
- 1992, Leigh W. Rutledge, The gay decades: from Stonewall to the present:
- "Fairies, nances, swishes, fags, lezzes — call 'em what you please — should of course be permitted to earn honest livings […]
- (slang, uncountable) Effeminacy, effeminate or homosexual demeanor.
- He got a little swish downriver.
- (uncountable, Canada, prison slang) An improvised alcoholic drink made by fermenting whatever ingredients are available.
Related terms
Translations
Verb
swish (third-person singular simple present swishes, present participle swishing, simple past and past participle swished)
- To make a rustling sound while moving.
- The cane swishes.
- 1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate:
- In the stern of the low-laden canoe his paddle swished steadily and powerfully, with thrust of straight, stiff upper arm backed by a twisting swing of the body from the waist, and with every stroke the little craft leaped as if a giant hand had shoved her forward.
- (transitive) To flourish with a swishing sound.
- to swish a cane back and forth
- 1829 [1799], Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, “The Devil's Thoughts”, in The Poetical Works of Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats, Paris: A. and W. Galignani, page 239:
- And backward and forward he swish'd his long tail / As a gentleman swishes his cane.
- (transitive, slang, dated) To flog; to lash.
- 1906, Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost:
- After Virginia came the twins, who were usually called "the Star and Stripes", as they were always getting swished.
- c. 1842, William Makepeace Thackeray, Character Sketches:
- Doctor Wordsworth and assistants would swish that error out of him in a way that need not here be mentioned.
- (basketball) To make a successful basketball shot that does not touch the rim or backboard.
- (gay slang) To mince or otherwise to behave in an effeminate manner.
- I shall not swish; I'll merely act limp-wristed.
- (transitive) To cause a liquid to move around in a container, or in one's mouth.
- Swish the mouthwash around the mouth and between the teeth for one minute.
Derived terms
Translations
to make a rustling sound while moving
to flourish with a swishing sound
to flog; to lash
basketball: to shoot the ball in without touching the rim or backboard
to behave in an effeminate manner
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Interjection
swish
- A hissing or whistling sound of something travelling quickly through the air.
- 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 84:
- "Just like parade it had been a minute before then stumble, bang, swish! Wiped out!" he said.
References
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