swish

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /swɪʃ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʃ

Adjective

swish (comparative swisher or more swish, superlative swishest or most swish)

1. (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.

2. 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.

3. Effeminate.

Derived terms

• swishness

Translations

Noun

swish (countable and uncountable, plural swishes)

1. A short rustling, hissing or whistling sound, often made by friction.
2. 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.

3. A sound of liquid flowing inside a container.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet, London, Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934:

     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.

4. A twig or bundle of twigs, used for administering beatings; a switch
5. (basketball) A successful basketball shot that does not touch the rim or backboard.
6. (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 […]

7. (slang) Effeminacy, effeminate or homosexual demeanor.

   He got a little swish downriver.

8. (uncountable, Canada, prison slang) An improvised alcoholic drink made by fermenting whatever ingredients are available.

Related terms

• swoosh
• whoosh

Translations

Verb

swish (third-person singular simple present swishes, present participle swishing, simple past and past participle swished)

1. 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.

2. (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.

3. (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.

4. (basketball) To make a successful basketball shot that does not touch the rim or backboard.
5. (gay slang) To mince or otherwise to behave in an effeminate manner.

   I shall not swish; I'll merely act limp-wristed.

6. (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

• aswish
• swishity
• swish-swash

Translations

Interjection

swish

1. 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.