swish

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪʃ

Adjective

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

1. (UK, colloquial) sophisticated; fashionable; smooth.

   This restaurant looks very swish — it even has linen tablecloths.

2. effeminate.

Translations

sophisticated; fashionable; smooth

• Russian: шикарный (ru) (šikarnyj)

Noun

swish (plural swishes)

1. A short rustling, hissing or whistling sound, often made by friction.
2. A sound of liquid flowing inside a container.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet Chapter 4

     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.

3. A movement of an animal's tail
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. An effeminate male homosexual.

Related terms

• swoosh
• whoosh

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.

2. (transitive) To flourish with a swishing sound.

   to swish a cane back and forth

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Coleridge to this entry?)

3. (transitive, slang, dated) To flog; to lash.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Thackeray to this entry?)

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.