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swashes

 - 3 dictionary results

swash

  [swosh, swawsh]
Use swashes in a Sentence
–verb (used without object)
1. to splash, as things in water, or as water does: Waves were swashing against the piers.
2. to dash around, as things in violent motion.
3. to swagger.
–verb (used with object)
4. to dash or cast violently, esp. to dash (water or other liquid) around, down, etc.
–noun
5. the surging or dashing, sometimes violent, of water, waves, etc.
6. the sound made by such dashing: the thunderous swash of the waves.
7. the ground over which water washes.
8. Chiefly Southeastern U.S. a channel of water through or behind a sandbank.
9. Printing. an extending ornamental flourish, as on letters of certain fonts of italic or cursive type.
–adjective
10. Printing. noting or pertaining to a character having a swash: a swash letter.
Origin:
1520–30; imit.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To swashes
swash   (swŏsh, swôsh)   
n.  

    1. A splash of water or other liquid hitting a solid surface.

    2. The sound of such a splash.

    3. A narrow channel through which tides flow.

    4. A bar over which waves wash freely.

    5. Swagger or bluster.

    6. A swaggering or blustering person.

    1. A narrow channel through which tides flow.

    2. A bar over which waves wash freely.

    3. Swagger or bluster.

    4. A swaggering or blustering person.

  3. See uprush.

    1. Swagger or bluster.

    2. A swaggering or blustering person.

v.   swashed, swash·ing, swash·es

v.   intr.

  1. To strike, move, or wash with a splashing sound.

  2. To swagger.

v.   tr.

  1. To splash (a liquid).

  2. To splash a liquid against.


[Probably imitative.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

swash 
1538, "the fall of a heavy body or blow," possibly from wash with an intensifying s-. It also meant "pig-wash, filth, wet refuse" (1528) and may have been imitative of the sound of water dashing against solid objects. The meaning "a body of splashing water" is first found 1671; that of "a dashing or splashing" 1847.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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