tonish
/ˈtɒnɪʃ/
tonish adjective: conforming to the "ton"; modish, stylish.
Adjective
tonish (comparative more tonish, superlative most tonish)
- Conforming to the "ton"; modish, stylish.
- [H]is nephew, Rose, whose trite, settled, tonish emptiness of Discourse is a never failing source of Laughter and diversion.1779, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin, published 2001, page 129
- She saw that his conversation, and his shoe-buckles, his manners, and his toupee, were all perfectly tonish; gems of the first water, in the regalia of fashion; and thought that, upon the whole, he was a husband that would do her credit.1790, Helen Maria Williams, Julia, Routledge, published 2016, page 138
Examples of tonish in a sentence
- I was engaged to dine in St Albans Street to meet my favourite Miss Cecilia Forrest, Mr and Mrs Broadhead, the Duke of Hamilton, Sir Watts Horton, and other tonish friends of my eldest sister's.1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 265
- […] those who […] have an inclination to give their sons, their daughters, and their servants, a tonish finish to their educations, may sin in haste and repent at leisure by passing a season at Bath.1801-1802, Charles Dibdin, Observations on a Tour Through Almost the Whole of England […]
Forms of tonish
| comparative | more tonish |
|---|---|
| superlative | most tonish |
| alternative form | tonnish |
Origin of tonish
From ton + -ish.
Words formed from tonish
Questions about tonish
- What does tonish mean?
- Tonish means conforming to the "ton"; modish, stylish.
- How do you use tonish in a sentence?
- I was engaged to dine in St Albans Street to meet my favourite Miss Cecilia Forrest, Mr and Mrs Broadhead, the Duke of Hamilton, Sir Watts Horton, and other tonish friends of my eldest sister's.
- What part of speech is tonish?
- Tonish is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce tonish?
- Tonish is pronounced /ˈtɒnɪʃ/ (UK).
Words near tonish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tonish (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tonish.wav.
Cite this entry: “tonish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tonish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.