Adjacent Words

swish definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: elegant and fashionable; "classy clothes"; "a classy dame"; "a posh restaurant"; "a swish pastry shop on the Rue du Bac"- Julia Child [syn: classy, posh, swish] n
1: a brushing or rustling sound v
1: move with or cause to move with a whistling or hissing sound; "The bubbles swoshed around in the glass"; "The curtain swooshed open" [syn: lap, swish, swosh, swoosh]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb Etymology: imitative Date: 1756 intransitive verb to move, pass, swing, or whirl with the sound of a swish transitive verb 1. to move, cut, or strike with a swish <the horse swished its tail> 2. to make (a basketball shot) so that the ball falls through the rim without touching it <swished a 3-point jumper> • swisher noun • swishingly adverb II. noun Date: 1820 1. a. a prolonged hissing sound (as of a whip cutting the air) b. a light sweeping or brushing sound <heard the swish of the horse's tail> 2. a swishing movement 3. usually disparaging an effeminate homosexual III. adjective Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1766 smart, fashionable

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v., n., & adj. --v. 1 tr. swing (a scythe or stick etc.) audibly through the air, grass, etc. 2 intr. move with or make a swishing sound. 3 tr. (foll. by off) cut (a flower etc.) in this way. --n. a swishing action or sound. --adj. colloq. smart, fashionable. Derivatives: swishy adj. Etymology: imit.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Swish Swish, v. t. [From the sound. Cf. Swash.] 1. To flourish, so as to make the sound swish. --Coleridge. 2. To flog; to lash. [Slang] --Thackeray.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Swish Swish, v. i. To dash; to swash.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Swish Swish, n. 1. A sound of quick movement, as of something whirled through the air. [Colloq.] 2. (Naut.) Light driven spray. [Eng.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(swishes, swishing, swished, swisher, swishest) 1. If something swishes or if you swish it, it moves quickly through the air, making a soft sound. A car swished by heading for the coast... He swished his cape around his shoulders... He heard a swishing sound. VERB: V adv/prep, V n prep/adv, V-ing • Swish is also a noun. She turned with a swish of her skirt. N-COUNT 2. If you describe something as swish, you mean that it is smart and fashionable. (BRIT INFORMAL, OLD-FASHIONED) ...a swish cocktail bar. ADJ

Moby Thesaurus

assibilate, assibilation, babble, bent, bubble, burble, buzz, campy, classy, crinkle, de rigueur, effeminate, effervesce, effervescence, effervescing, elegant, exclusive, fashionable, fizz, fizzle, fizzling, frication, frictional rustling, fruity, gay, guggle, gurgle, hiss, hissing, homosexual, hush, hushing, in, kinky, lap, lisp, plash, plush, posh, purl, queer, rhonchus, ripple, ritzy, rustle, shush, shushing, sibilance, sibilate, sibilation, siffle, sigmatism, siss, sissing, sizz, sizzle, sizzling, slosh, smart, sneeze, sneezing, sniff, sniffle, snore, snort, snuff, snuffle, spit, splash, splutter, sputter, squash, squelch, squish, sternutation, stertor, stylish, susurrate, swank, swanky, swash, swell, tony, trendy, trill, wash, wheeze, whish, whisk, whisper, whistle, whistling, white noise, whiz, whoosh, with-it, zip