swash
/swɒʃ/US/swɑʃ/
swash noun: the water that washes up on shore after an incoming wave has broken.
Noun
swash (countable and uncountable, plural swashes)
- The water that washes up on shore after an incoming wave has broken.
- It is not the direct battering that breaks the dyke, but overtopping, when the flow of water sweeps away the inland face, so swash length is a vital thing to accommodate, and to do that you must make an estimate of the highest possible tides.1997, Paul Shepheard, The Cultivated Wilderness, Or, What is Landscape?, page 147
- The first process occurs when swash mixes air and sand, trapping air bubbles just below the beach surface.2011, Orrin H. Pilkey, William J. Neal, James Andrew Graham Cooper, The World's Beaches: A Global Guide to the Science of the Shoreline, page 141
- A narrow sound or channel of water lying within a sand bank, or between a sand bank and the shore, or a bar over which the sea washes.
- According to what you say about the shells, there ought to be a thousand flamingos feeding in this very swash at this instant.1924, Mary Mapes Dodge, St. Nicholas, page 1062
- Marks northwest junction of main and swash channels.1928, United States. Bureau of Light-Houses, Atlantic Coast of the United States, page 366
- A wet splashing sound.
- As a first warning the boiling liquid lifts the cover and washes over it with a noisy swash and clatter.1906, Good Housekeeping - Volume 42, page 352
- The sound of the furious "swash, swash,” as it struck, carried even to the depths of the holds where the engines churned madly to keep the prow in the teeth of the waves.1943, Ella M. Noller, Rendezvous With Victory, page 44
- A smooth stroke; a swish.
- Dip in and out quickly and with a swash three or four times. This serves to wash off the dust that has settled while the fruit is on the trays.1895, California. Legislature, Journals of the Legislature of the State of California, page 271
- Then he cut down a long forked stick, the anti-ophidian of the poor, and probing with the stick in one hand, began to clean the yuca grove with the machete in the other, displaying the lazy elegance of an athlete – swash, swash, swash – free and easy but looking carefully at each detail.2005, Jimmy Weiskopf, Yajé: The New Purgatory : Encounters with Ayahuasca, page 91
- A swishing noise.
- The swash of the whirling blades reminds me vaguely of the noise conifers make.2003, Alfred Wohlpart, The Trail Home: Along the Pacific Crest, page 55
- Nothing but more swash and click, until l heard... “Eurah!” Crunching! There it was: a definite crunching.2011, Barbara Allan Hite, Letters from Jane: The Adventures of an Abandoned Kitten, page 15
- A long, protruding ornamental line or pen stroke found in some typefaces and styles of calligraphy.
- Yet Svvaſh-Letters, […] ought to have the Upper Sholder of that Svvaſh Sculped dovvn ſtraight, viz. to a Right Angle, or Square vvith the Face; […]1683, Joseph Moxon, “Numb[er] VI. Applied to the Art of Printing.”, in Mechanick Exercises: Or, The Doctrine of Handy-Works. Applied to the Art of Printing. […], volume II, London: […] Joseph Moxon...
- There is a group of decorative swash initials, too.1955, Club of Printing Women of New York, Antique, Modern & Swash: A Brief History of Women in Printing, page 18
- A streak or patch.
- On impulse he took Sunset through Brentwood and saw Cape Jessamines flaring pink above green lawns and here and there a yellow swash of jonquils.1972, John Boyd, The I. Q. Merchant, page 21
- Hank stared for a moment at the bloody swash across his hand.1993, Jo-Ann Morgan, Hank and Chloe
- Liquid filth; wash; hog mash.
- And it setteth the soul at liberty, and maketh her free to follow the will of God and doth to the soul even as health doth unto the body; after that a man is pined and wasted away with a long soaking disease, the legs cannot bear him, he cannot lift up his hands to help himself, his taste is...1842, William Tyndale, The parable of the Wycked Mammon, page 10
- A blustering noise.
- swaggering behaviour.
- Some of you are making a great swash in life and after awhile will die, leaving your families beggars, and will expect us ministers of the Gospel to come and lie about your excellencies; but we will not do it.1886 September, “Insurance”, in The American Horticulturist: A National Journal of Horticulture, volume 2, number 1, page 27
- He silently cursed the recently arrived Jessup, who was full of more swash than sense .1993, Robin Leanne Wiete, When Morning Comes, page 32
- A swaggering fellow; a swasher.
- An oval figure, whose mouldings are oblique to the axis of the work.
- The lathe was, in process of time, adapted to the production of oval figures, twisted and swash-work, as it is called, and, lastly, of rose-engine work. The swash, or raking mouldings, were employed in the balusters of staircases and other ornaments at the period of the "Renaissance" in...1856, Lectures on the Progress of Arts and Science, page 230
- The artisans of the Middle Ages were very skilful in the use of the lathe, and turned out much beautiful screen and stall work, still to be seen in our cathedrals, as well as twisted and swash-work for the balusters of staircases and other ornamental purposes.2019, Samuel Smiles, Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers
Verb
swash (third-person singular simple present swashes, present participle swashing, simple past and past participle swashed)
- To swagger; to act with boldness or bluster (toward).
- He swashed out of the room, and presently we heard his angry voice berating his bearer.1910, Jerome Klapka Jerome, Robert Barr, Arthur Lawrence, The Idler: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine - Volume 37, page 1327
- He swashed about (cautioned though he was to maintain silence concerning his past theatrical relationships) in such a self-confident manner that he was like to convince every one of his identity by mere matter of circumstantial evidence.2009, Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie: A Novel, page 310
- To dash or flow noisily; to splash.
- How the sea rolls swashing ‘gainst the side! Stand by for reefing, hearties!1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Moby Dick’’, chapter 40”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
- There was an inch or two of water on the floor in our room that continually swashed, swashed from side to side, with the rolling of the ship.1915, Emma Beatrice Burton, Beatrice Witherspoon, page 59
- To swirl through liquid; to swish.
- The parts are swashed in the solution until they are clean and are then rinsed in cold running water.1917, The Automobile - Volume 37, page 233
- I followed one set to the laundrey, where for two hours the samples were swashed and soaked, and swashed again, with strong laundry soap.1920, Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine - Volume 99
- To wade forcefully through liquid.
- Kala Nag swashed out of the water, blew his trunk clear, and began another climb; but this time he was not alone, and he had not to make his path.1894, Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book
- While Col-d'Argent sank collapsed upon the Bridge, and the horse charged over him, and again charged, and beat and were beaten three several times, Anhalt-Dessau, impatient of such fiddling hither and thither, swashed into the stream itself with his Prussian Foot; swashed through it, waist-deep or...1899, Thomas Carlyle, History of Fredrich the Second, called Frederick the Great, page 323
- To swipe.
- '[…] ye ill-farren, useless bowdikite!' said she, as she swashed the dishclout about my lugs,1828, The night watch; or, Tales of the sea - Volume 2, page 97
- It was a fire sword That I swashed about the world, O how I swashed The great fire sword that lit the sky2010, Dorothea Lasky, Black Life, page 10
- To fall violently or noisily.
- The Archbyshop of Yorke[…]swasht him down, meaning to thrust himselfe in betwixt the Legate, and the Archbyshop of Canterbury.1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Laste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume II, London: […] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, page 444, column 2
- To streak, to color in a swash.
- As the valleys darkened, the caps of the hills were swashed in variant hues.2003, Walter Schenck, Shiloh, Unveiled, page 660
- The glade where he stood was tropical in nature and should have been swashed in a hundred shades of green.2014, Jill Jones, A Scent of Magic
Adjective
swash (comparative swasher, superlative swashest)
- bold; dramatic.
- Very swash in camelly cashmere belted over shirt-tunic and pants in a neat, tiny print of cinnamon–navy–wine–beige crêpe de Chine;1970, Vogue - Volume 155, page 40
- When Sir Noel Coward played King Magnus to the Orinthia of Miss Margaret Leighton, the stage was swash with beige draperies,1972, James L. Steffensen, Great Scenes from the World Theater - Volume 2, page 248
- Having pronounced swashes.
- The French compositor took the greek capitals for latin ones and sought out his swashest type to set the handwritten letters,1936, Acta arithmetica - Volume 58, page 217
- The failing to avoid at all costs when using this type of capital is that of making them too swash.1967, John Le F. Dumpleton, Teach Yourself Handwriting, page 45
swash meaning in Tamil and Kannada
swash in Tamil
- மாது அலை, மோது அலை
swash in Kannada
- ಸಿಡಿಸು, ಹೊಡೆ, ಎದೆಯುಬ್ಬಿಸಿ ನಡೆ
Examples of swash in a sentence
- The swash is made up of the remnants of a breaking wave.2014, Orrin H. Pilkey, Tracy Monegan Rice, William J. Neal, How to Read a North Carolina Beach:
- This is defined as a modified ridge or swash bar that develops into a berm on the swash bar's seaward margin (Coastal Research Group, 1969, p. 455).1987, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, SEPM Reprint Series, page 101:
- At Cape Hatteras, numerous vessels ran aground, “driven from their anchors and grounded on the swash and bar.”2010, Janette Thomas Greenwood, First Fruits of Freedom, page 31:
- I'd wish with a swish, or I'd wash with a swash - and I'd dash (but not clash) with a dish ( but never squish your good things )1979, Sun & Moon - Issues 6-11, page 22:
Forms of swash
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | swashes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | swashes |
| present participle | swashing |
| past participle | swashed |
| past | swashed |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | swasher |
| superlative | swashest |
Origin of swash
Scandinavian. Compare Swedish dialect svasska, Norwegian svakka, English dialect swack (“a blow”).
Words formed from swash
Phrases with swash
Words that rhyme with swash
Questions about swash
- What does swash mean?
- Swash means the water that washes up on shore after an incoming wave has broken.
- What is swash in Tamil?
- Swash in Tamil is மாது அலை, மோது அலை. See Swash meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use swash in a sentence?
- The swash is made up of the remnants of a breaking wave.
- What part of speech is swash?
- Swash can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce swash?
- Swash is pronounced /swɒʃ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of swash?
- The plural of swash is swashes.
Words near swash in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: swash (page history and authors); swash (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); swash (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-swash.wav.
Cite this entry: “swash.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/swash. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.