chic
UK/ʃiːk/US/ʃik/
chic adjective: elegant, stylish.
Adjective
chic (comparative chicer or more chic, superlative chicest or most chic)
- Elegant, stylish.
- Mrs. Hominy, sir, is the lady of Major Hominy, one of our chicest spirits; and belongs Toe^([sic]) one of our most aristocratic families.1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, “From which It will be Seen that Martin Became a Lion on His Own Account. Together with the Reason Why.”, in The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit...
- As he wisht to micks with the very chicest sosaity, and git the best of infmation about this country, Munseer Jools of coarse went and lodgd in Lester Square— […]1847, Je—mes Pl—sh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Crinoline”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume XIII, London: Published at the office, 85, Fleet Street, →OCLC, page 72, column 2
Noun (1)
chic (countable and uncountable, plural chics)
- Good form; style.
- A little pear-grey glove, dropped and abandoned on the floor, may give its owner's sex and chic to the whole room; whilst an entire house-full of so-called womanly trifles will have only a neuter flavour about them, if chic be not there.1877 September, A. de F., “Chic”, in Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, volume LI, London: Richard Bentley & Son, […] ; New York, N.Y.: Willmer and Rogers; Paris: Galignani...
- You can be assured that whatever article of wearable chic you pick-up at this Newbury St. shop, you will not see it walking up and down the streets a hundred times.1976 December 18, David Holland, “Dear Santa...”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 25, page 11
- A person with (a particular type of) chic.
- It was probably fortunate for him [Bernard Lazare] that the police, who started keeping a fairly regular watch on his activities in April 1893, also inclined towards thinking that he was merely following the fashion of other young ‘bourgeois chics’ (though at times they evidently had second...1978, Nelly Wilson, “Anarchism”, in Bernard-Lazare: Antisemitism and the Problem of Jewish Identity in Late Nineteenth-century France, paperback edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press...
- Striving for admission in those exclusive circles so as to gain higher social recognition and acceptance by the chics, anthropologists who were already subservient to other philosophical musings such as hermeneutics and phenomenology, started to upgrade their language and to treat cultures as...1995, Pierre Maranda, “Beyond Postmodernism: Resonant Anthropology”, in Gilles Bibeau, Ellen Corin, editors, Beyond Textuality: Asceticism and Violence in Anthropological Interpretation (Approaches...
Noun (2)
chic (plural chics)
- A kind of ritual buffoon or clown in Yucatec Maya culture.
- the chics of Dzitas, Yucatán, if they caught a small boy, removed his clothes and rubbed gunpowder in his anus. In the Yucatec barrio of “Santiago,” the chics amuse crowds by lassoing men and fining them1972, Sarah C. Blaffer, The Black-man of Zinacantan: A Central American Legend, Austin and London: University of Texas Press, page 51
- Along with them came a man of the village known for his humorous antics; he was called the chic. Riding atop the cut tree, the chic danced and performed for the people as the procession made its way back to the village.2001, Victoria Schlesinger, Animals and Plants of the Ancient Maya: A Guide, 2nd paperback edition, Austin: University of Texas Press, published 2004, page 178
Proper noun capitalized: Chic
Chic
- A diminutive of the male given name Charles.
chic meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
chic in Tamil
- கண்கவர், நளினமான, நவநாகரிகமான, நவநாகரிகம், நளினம், கவர்ச்சி
chic in Urdu
- آب تاب, وضع, زیب
chic in Bengali
- ফ্যাশনেবল, আড়ম্বরপূর্ণ
chic in Malayalam
- stylish, sophisticated, smart
- അലങ്കാരപ്രിയമുള്ള, പരിഷ്കാരിയായ, പരിഷ്കാരമുള്ള, മോടിയുള്ള, വേഷാലങ്കാരത്തിൽ മോടിയുള്ള, മോടിയിൽ വേഷമണിഞ്ഞ
More languagesFewer languages
- chic in Kannada
- ಒಯ್ಯಾರದ ಹುಡುಗಿ, ಸೊಗಸಾದ ಶೈಲಿಯನ್ನುಳ್ಳ, ನೀಟುಗಾರಿಕೆಯ, ಒಯ್ಯಾರದ
- chic in Arabic
- أَنِيق ʔanīq
- chic in Persian
- شیک šik
Examples of chic in a sentence
- There are chic Cercles; or rather, there is only one, the Jockey Club.1870 July, “Parisine”, in London Society. An Illustrated Magazine of Light and Amusing Literature for the Hours of Relaxation, volume...
- What is chic may, in a sense, be fashionable, but what is fashionable cannot be chic.1877 September, A. de F., “Chic”, in Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, volume LI, London: Richard Bentley & Son...
- This style of coiffure gives to the grown child a chic appearance and naive insouciance that is very fascinating.1915 February, “Told in the Boudoir: Concerning Coiffures in General and in Particular”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair...
- For Murray Marks he [Richard Norman Shaw] designed a chic Oxford Street shopfront for the display of 'pots' (1875–6), […]2010, Andrew Saint, “South and North”, in Richard Norman Shaw, revised (2nd) edition, New Haven, Conn.; London: Published for the Paul...
Synonyms of chic
Antonyms
Forms of chic
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | chicer |
| comparative | more chic |
| superlative | chicest |
| superlative | most chic |
| Noun | |
| plural | chics |
Origin of chic
Borrowed from French chic (“elegant”), which in turn is probably borrowed from German Schick (“elegant appearance; tasteful presentation”). The word is akin to Dutch schielijk (“hasty”), schikken (“to arrange”) and Old English sċēon (“to happen”).
Borrowed from Yucatec Maya chiʼik (“coati; buffoon”).
Words formed from chic
Phrases with chic
Words that rhyme with chic
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- leak
- seek
- bespeak
- pique
- tweak
- reek
- sleek
- geek
- peek
- squeak
- week
- wreak
- boutique
- clique
- creek
- forspeak
- gleek
- unique
- bleak
- cacique
- creak
- critique
- deke
- eek
- eke
- fleak
- on fleek
- respeak
- Tajik
- teak
- technique
- tongue-in-chic
- cleek
- desqueak
- leek
- malik
- meek
- midweek
- misspeak
- physique
- pratique
- shriek
- speke
- streek
- Zeke
- -speak
- Adam's Peak
- advertique
Questions about chic
- What does chic mean?
- Chic means elegant, stylish.
- What is chic in Tamil?
- Chic in Tamil is கண்கவர், நளினமான, நவநாகரிகமான. See Chic meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use chic in a sentence?
- There are chic Cercles; or rather, there is only one, the Jockey Club.
- What part of speech is chic?
- Chic can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce chic?
- Chic is pronounced /ʃiːk/ (UK).
Words near chic in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chic (page history and authors); Chic (page history and authors); chic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); chic (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); chic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-chic.ogg.
Cite this entry: “chic.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chic. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.