swish

Etymology

adj

1. (Britain, colloquial) sophisticated; fashionable; smooth.
   This restaurant looks very swish — it even has linen tablecloths.
   All the shabby railway buildings in front of the station concourse have either been removed or transformed into a shopping complex and swish homes. June 3 2020, 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
   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. 18 October 2014, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian
3. Effeminate.

noun

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.
3. A sound of liquid flowing inside a container.
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.
   "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
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.

verb

1. To make a rustling sound while moving.
   The cane swishes.
   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. (transitive) To flourish with a swishing sound.
   to swish a cane back and forth
3. (transitive, slang, dated) To flog; to lash.
   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
   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
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.

intj

1. A 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