swish

comparative swisher · comparative more swish · superlative swishest · superlative most swish

1. UKcolloquialsophisticated; fashionable; smooth.

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

   1 more example

   All the shabby railway buildings in front of the station concourse have either been removed or transformed into a shopping complex and swish homes.

   2020 June 3, Howard Johnston, “Regional News: Cambridge”, in Rail, page 23

2. Attractive, stylish

   When the boys go swish, they always score

   2004, “Ladyflash”, in Thunder, Lightning, Strike, performed by The Go! Team

   1 more example

   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.

   2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian

3. Effeminate.

plural swishes

1. countableuncountableA short rustling, hissing or whistling sound, often made by friction.
2. countableuncountableA hissing, sweeping movement through the air, as of an animal's tail.

   As she trotted down the white path, each swish of her tail sent petals dancing through the air, falling where the bride would walk.

   2011, A. C. August, The Highway Cross, page 116

3. countableuncountableA sound of liquid flowing, especially inside a container.

   1 more example

   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.

   [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC

4. countableuncountableA twig or bundle of twigs, used for administering beatings; a switch
5. countableuncountableball gamesA successful basketball shot that does not touch the rim or backboard.
6. countableuncountableball gamesA rapid or careless attacking stroke by the batter.
7. countableslanguncountableAn effeminate male homosexual.

   "Fairies, nances, swishes, fags, lezzes — call 'em what you please — should of course be permitted to earn honest livings […]

   1992, Leigh W. Rutledge, The gay decades: from Stonewall to the present

8. slanguncountableEffeminacy, effeminate or homosexual demeanor.

   He got a little swish downriver.

9. CanadaslanguncountableAn improvised alcoholic drink made by fermenting whatever ingredients are available.

present singular third person swishes · participle present swishing · participle past swished · past swished

1. To make a rustling sound while moving.

   The cane swishes.

   1 more example

   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.

   1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate

2. transitiveTo flourish with a swishing sound.

   to swish a cane back and forth

   1 more example

   And backward and forward he swish'd his long tail / As a gentleman swishes his cane.

   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

3. datedslangtransitiveTo flog; to lash.

   Doctor Wordsworth and assistants would swish that error out of him in a way that need not here be mentioned.

   c. 1842, William Makepeace Thackeray, Character Sketches

   1 more example

   After Virginia came the twins, who were usually called "the Star and Stripes", as they were always getting swished.

   1906, Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

4. ball gamesTo make a successful basketball shot that does not touch the rim or backboard.
5. slangLGBTTo mince or otherwise to behave in an effeminate manner.

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

   2 more examples

   Therefore, I couldn't imagine the men I would be attracted to attracted in turn to someone who was effeminate. Ergo, I'd better not swish — not if I wanted the kind of sexual partners I thought I did.

   1986, Samuel R. Delany, Joseph Beam, “The Possibility of Possibilities”, in Joseph Beam, editor, In The Life: A Black Gay Anthology, page 191

   Once you come to grips and accept that you are both feminine and masculine and accept that proudly, the fear can disappear and you can begin to enjoy being you! […] ¶ So you can shed tears at a movie or other significant event, you can swish (I said that) a little or a lot, you can be feminine or masculine or somewhere in-between because you will know, in your heart, this is the real you. […

   1999 March 28, Rachael, “Dear Rachael 3/99”, in TransGender Forum (offline archive), archived from the original on 25 Oct 2023

6. transitiveTo 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.

1. onomatopoeicA hissing or whistling sound of something travelling quickly through the air.

   "Just like parade it had been a minute before then stumble, bang, swish! Wiped out!" he said.

   1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 84

2. onomatopoeicThe sound of a basketball going in the hoop.