| 释义 |
▪ I. swish, int. or adv. and n.1|swɪʃ|
[Imitative.]
A. int. or adv. Expressive of the sound made by the kind of movement defined in B. 1; with a swish. Also reduplicated swish, swish.
1837Hood Agric. Distress 35 When swish! in bolts our bacon-hog Atwixt the legs o' Master Blogg. 1890Scribner's Mag. Nov. 565/2 Swish went the whip. 1899Crockett Kit Kennedy 181 Swish-swish went Kit's feet through the dew-drenched grass. a1911in ‘G. A. Birmingham’ Lighter Side Irish Life (1912) iv. 72 So the executioner swung his sword and swish went poor John's [the Baptist's] head.
B. n.
1. a. A hissing sound like that produced by a switch or similar slender object moved rapidly through the air or an object moving swiftly in contact with water; movement accompanied by such sound.
1820Clare Rural Life (ed. 3) 60 I'd just streak'd down, and with a swish Whang'd off my hat soak'd like a fish. 1862Kingsley in Macm. Mag. Oct. 443 The salmon..went on..with a swish or two of his tail which made the stream boil again. 1862Tyndall Mountaineer. vi. 45 The swish of many a minor streamlet mingled with the muffled roar of the large one. 1878Stevenson Inland Voy. 200 The rhythmical swish of boat and paddle in the water. 1886J. R. Rees Divers. Bookworm iii. 95 The swish of the angler's rod. 1887W. J. Knox-Little Broken Vow vi. 86, I drew the curtains away with a good swish behind the dressing⁓table. 1895Meredith Amazing Marriage ix, The willowy swish of silken dresses. 1896‘Ian Maclaren’ Kate Carnegie 289 In my study I hear the swish of the scythe.
b. Reduplicated swish, swish or swish-swish.
1833M. Scott Tom Cringle viii, I heard the frequent swish-swish of the water, as they threw bucketsful on the sails to thicken them. 1894A. Robertson Nuggets, etc. 61 The swish-swish of wild cats and the cries of opossums were heard. 1900M. H. Grant Words by Eyewitness vii. (1902) 145 The incessant swish, swish of bullets.
c. A rough hiss heard at each revolution of a faulty gramophone record.
1949G. A. Briggs Sound Reproduction xxi. 130 A background noise of even volume..is much more tolerable than a sudden or changing sound such as the click of a damaged surface or the swish of a warped record. 1978Gramophone Jan. 1307/1 Background noise can be at remarkably low levels on disc—though admittedly in only the best examples, and with an ever-present risk of warps, swishes and other annoyances.
2. A ‘dash’ of water upon a surface.
1851G. H. Kingsley Sport & Trav. (1900) 524 So up we went..getting a shivering ‘swish’ of ice-cold water in our faces. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Swish, an old term for the light driving spray of the sea. 1879Black White Wings xvii, The brave White Dove goes driving through those heavy seas,..followed by a swish of water that rushes along the lee scuppers.
3. Short for swish-broom, -tail (see swish-).
1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 697 A neat swish is all that is requisite [for a draught-horse] at any time. 1873E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 62/1 A small broom, termed a swish, made from the waste cuttings of cane. 1901T. J. Alldridge Sherbro xxiii. 246 A Madeira mosquito swish, which was simply a horse's tail fastened to the end of a short stick.
4. A cane or birch for flogging; also, a stroke with this.
1860Sat. Rev. 12 May 600/2 If he flogs, it is according..to a fixed tariff of ‘swishes’. 1885Meredith Diana xxvi, A man who has not blessedly become acquainted with the swish in boyhood.
5. A male homosexual; an effeminate man. U.S. slang.
1941B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? iv. 71 If..that fat swish lets the producer know he did all the writing, you're dead. 1967L. Forrester Girl called Fathom xiv. 178 ‘I think he's a swish.’ ‘A—what?’ ‘Faggot. Queer.’ 1975J. F. Burke Death Trick (1976) iv. 62 [He] dresses mod, and he talks like some kind of a swish.
6. Cricket. A rapid or careless attacking stroke. colloq.
1963Times 25 Feb. 4/1 He resorted at last to the swish, an invitation to the disaster which presently befell him. 1977Daily Mirror 15 Mar. 31/3 The striking sequence that whistled young Hookes from 36 to 56 was as follows: An enormous one-bounce slog over mid-off; a swish to long leg [etc.].
▪ II. swish, n.2|swɪʃ|
[? Native name.]
A native mortar of West Africa. Also attrib.
1863R. F. Burton W. Africa II. 240 The town is filled with deep holes, from which the sand mixed with swish for walls has been dug. 1879― El-Medinah xiii. (ed. 3) 174 He sees a plain like swish-work [ed. 1855 tamp-work], where knobs of granite act daisies. 1881Standard 12 Nov. 5/1 The ‘swish’ used in ordinary houses is simply red earth worked up with water until it thus acquires a certain degree of tenacity. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 113 The swish huts of the Effiks.
▪ III. swish, v.|swɪʃ|
[Imitative. Cf. swish int. or adv. and n.1]
1. intr. To move with a swish (see swish n.1 1); to make the sound expressed by ‘swish’.
1756[E. Perronet] Mitre i. liii, Next see two huge Academies:..With these conjoin a thousand more, Of vaulted roof, or humble floor;..Where swish the rods or whirl the toys. 1860G. H. K. in Vac. Tour. (1864) 116 The rain pattering against the window-panes, and the birches outside swishing and rasping against the walls. 1860O. W. Holmes Elsie V. x. (1891) 139 The rustic who was..swishing through the grass with his scythe. 1877Black Green Past. xviii. 147 The wheels swished through the pools. 1885Chamb. Jrnl. 15 Aug. 515/2 The water swishing amongst the pebbles at the far end of the cove. 1898G. W. Steevens With Kitchener to Khartum 146 The bullets were swishing and lashing now like rain on a pond.
2. trans. To cause to move with a swish; esp. to whisk (the tail) about.
1799Coleridge Devil's Thoughts ii, And backward and forward he swish'd his long tail As a Gentleman swishes his cane. 1862G. J. Whyte-Melville Inside Bar! 347, I confess I have no great confidence in a thorough-bred mare, that swishes her tail a good deal in harness. 1880Jefferies Greene Ferne Farm 263 Swishing the briar, which bent easily.
b. intr. (const. with).
1854P. B. St. John Amy Moss 106 As he advanced swishing before him with a stick he had picked up. 1866Blackmore Cradock Nowell xix, He swished away very hard with the broom the moment he saw such a visitor.
c. trans. To move or remove with (or as with) a swishing movement.
1894Daily News 25 Sept. 5/6, 80,000 men equipped as a modern army cannot be swished about in the sort of way that is assumed in these discussions. 1904A. St. H. Gibbons Africa I. v. 59 We were again swished downstream at the rate of some ten miles an hour.
3. intr. To jump a high hedge, brushing through the twigs at the top and making them bend. Also to swish a rasper (see Eng. Dial. Dict.).
1825Alken Nat. Sports Gt. Brit. (1903) Plate 15 Swishing at a Rasper. 1864G. A. Lawrence M. Dering II. 22 Breaking through the irregular line [of the enemy]..as they would have ‘swished’ through a bulfinch in the Shires.
4. trans. To flog, esp. at school.
1856Thackeray Misc., Fashionable Authoress II. 470 Doctor Wordsworth and assistants would swish that error out of him in a way that need not here be mentioned. 1872Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 614/2 As he wouldn't tell he must be swished. 1875Reynardson Down the Road 18 How he [sc. Dr. Keate] used to ‘swish’ a fellow if he caught him up at barracks! 1896E. A. King Ital. Highways 339 One small boy is being horsed on the back of another and soundly swished.
5. To brush with a swishing sound.
1889The County xxx, The long grass moistly swishes my petticoats.
Hence swished, ˈswishing ppl. adjs.; also ˈswisher, a flogger.
1860Thackeray Round. Papers, Hundred Y. Hence (1861) 137 Here are the scourges. Choose me a nice long, swishing, buddy one. 1869Gibbon R. Gray vii, The brig was cutting through the water with a swishing sound. 1884E. Yates Recoll. I. ii, A desperate swisher the doctor. 1891Zangwill Bachelor's Club 181 Large banks of clouds..melted into swishing showers. 1898Wollocombe Morn till Eve vii. 83 The leading crew, with a long swishing stroke, pass the barges.
▪ IV. swish, a. colloq.|swɪʃ|
[Perh. f. as prec.]
Smart, elegant, fashionable.
1879N. & Q. 5th. Ser. XI. 116 Provincialisms..in the neighbourhood of Lydford... Bain't you swish? = How smart you are. 1922E. Raymond Tell England II. xi. 269 Really, under these conditions, the Peninsula, we felt, would be quite ‘swish’. Ibid. xii. 273 ‘If I'm killed you can put those lines over me.’.. ‘They are rather swish,’ I murmured. 1933Auden Witnesses in Listener 12 July (Suppl.) p. ii/1 He was born in a palace, his people were swish. 1960Guardian 14 July 7/7 A party at a swish place with the best people. 1972Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 7 Jan. 7/1 He..is a lover of the sea, food, lilies, the Old Vic, and swish cars: he is contemplating the purchase of a {pstlg}5,380 Mercedes 350SL Coupé. 1974P. Dickinson Poison Oracle ii. 60 The architects..had made their name running up swish hotels in Beirut. |